NASCAR officials announced Friday that veteran crew chief Eddie Troconis has been reinstated.
Eddie Troconis, was arrested after he turned himself in to the Talladega County Sheriff’s Deputies Office on Wednesday, January 5th, after an arrest warrant was issued on December 21st on felony second degree assault charges following a confrontation with former NASCAR Cup Series championship spotter Clayton Hughes at Talladega Superspeedway on October 2nd.
Troconis & Jennifer Jo Cobb |
According to a report from AnnistonStar.com, which was the first report of Ortiz’s arrest, Talladega Chief Deputy Josh Tubbs states the incident that led to Ortiz’s arrest began with an argument over a woman (rumored to be estranged wife, racer Jennifer Jo Cobb). Eddie and Jennifer married in 2015.
Tubbs also says, in the report, that Ortiz is accused of “sucker punching” Hughes in the back of the neck to knock him down and then proceeding to kick the victim in the back several times.
Troconis was suspended Oct. 6 after the race weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. Yesterday’s NASCAR announcement indicated that Troconis is eligible to return to all NASCAR activity.
Troconis’ NASCAR membership was suspended after a violation of Section 12.8.1.c in the 2021 NASCAR Rule Book. Officials did not list specifics about the violation but confirmed that the infraction did not stem from a competition-related or on-track incident.
That means that the violation fell under the rule book’s headings of either:
- • Physical confrontation with a NASCAR Official, media members, fans, etc.
- • Member-to-Member confrontation(s) with physical violence and other violent manifestations such as significant threat(s) and/or abuse and/or endangerment.
Troconis was on the pit box last year for 17 races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and 20 races in the Camping World Truck Series. He was serving as crew chief for Young’s Motorsports’ No. 02 team and driver Kris Wright at the time of the Talladega incident.
Troconis has two Camping World Truck Series wins in his career, both coming while teamed up with ThorSport Racing and driver Ben Rhodes from 2017-18.
The truck series is scheduled to return to the track at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, February 18th.
Spotter Clayton Hughes suffered severe injuries and is still undergoing extensive physical rehabilitation after several surgeries and is in the process of learning to walk again.
NASCAR Race Mom extends best wishes for a complete recovery.
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