Last week the Mystery of the Missing Monkey was the talk of the Phoenix garage area. After a daring kidnapping, the lucky monkey that brought Jack Sprague good luck for the past several races went missing. Shockingly, no ransom demands were made. But the mystery unraveled in front of the entire Truck Series community when the monkey arrived, bound and gagged, in the Chase Miller/No. 4 Dodge pit area. After a scrape on-track last week in Phoenix, the BHR crew was not too kind to Monkey, as seen in this picture taken from an anonymous BHR crewman's cellphone:

After news spread that Monkey was hanging by a noose in the No. 4 pit area, Sprague's team organized an impromptu rescue mission.  Crew chief Tony Furr stormed the BHR pit and quickly knifed the noose loose and Monkey escaped the clutches of the BHR team.  Within moments, he was back with his team enjoying a banana.  As the team prepared for tech inspection, Monkey was quickly reacclimated to things with the No. 60 team. In fact, he held the wheel and steered the truck through the inspection area.

Charles Krall/TruckSeries.com Photo

The No. 4 team denies all responsibility for the daring Ape-napping. However, the No. 60 bunch has collected evidence that may implicate Chase and/or his crew.

Charles Krall/TruckSeries.com Photo

Tony Furr has indicated he has a strong feeling of who the perpetrators are. He will be sending the box that the monkey was shipped in for DNA testing and will do a comprehensive hand writing analysis on the label. "We want to find the monster who did this," said one crew member, again requesting anonymity. "We will pull out all the stops until the people responsible are behind bars."