Race Weekend Central

Team Xtreme Racing Withdraws From Martinsville, Worker Reports Unpaid Work on Reddit

The problems for Team Xtreme Racing extend beyond the owner. A worker for the team, which competes in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with the No. 44 Chevrolet, took to Reddit to accuse team owner John Cohen of going two weeks without paying his employees’ salaries.

Using the name Daegoba, the worker indicated that this problem is not a new one.

“This has been an ongoing problem for us,” wrote Daegoba. “Several instances, including paychecks being bounced, returned or refused by Wells Fargo, Chase, BB&T and other financial institutions have occurred since Team Xtreme’s inception. One team member has had over nine checks issued to him that were no good. Some employees that have resigned over the issues have returned to pick up their last check have been denied their due pay, and turned away with no explanation.

“The latest issue originated in California where team owner Mr Cohen says Goodyear overcharged the team for tires causing the discrepancy. Mr. Cohen communicated to the team members that he would fix the problem Monday the 23rd. Today is Friday, and his employees have yet to be paid.”

This morning, Team Xtreme issued a statement that it had withdrawn from this weekend’s events at Martinsville Speedway due to a 100% chance of rain for qualifying.

“With the threat of rain and our position in the points, we made the decision to channel our resources towards racing at Texas Motor Speedway in two weeks,” owner John Cohen said in a statement released by the team. “Our crew is hard at work and our focus remains on qualifying into races each week. We will be back after the Easter break with a renewed effort to make the Duck Commander 500.”

Following his post, the worker took the time to respond to a couple comments, most notably commenting on the team’s absence from this weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway.

“We haven’t lifted a finger to work on the cars since Tuesday, the end of the second weeks pay period,” says Daegoba. “There’s a statement that was issued saying we withdrew from Martinsville due to rain. That is false. We aren’t working because we haven’t been paid.”

The writer also encouraged readers to question owner Cohen about the issue on Twitter. Cohen, an avid user of social media, took the time to respond to one user, simply replying, “not true.”

Today’s discovery is yet another chapter in a hectic month for the organization, including the theft of a team car and an arrest warrant issued for John Cohen.

Further details have yet to be announced at this time, though the worker edited their post.

“EDIT: I’m dealing with this now, I’ll update as soon as I can,” they write.

About the author

A graduate of Ball State, Aaron rejoins Frontstretch for his second season in 2016 following a successful year that included covering seven races and starting the popular "Two-Headed Monster" column in 2015. Now in his third year of covering motorsports, Aaron serves as an Assistant Editor for Frontstretch while also contributing to other popular sites including Speed51 and The Apex. He encourages you to come say hi when you see him at the track.

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