Shane Hmiel

After the first 26 races of the season, he already improved on his rookie season statistics, earning four top 5s and 10 top 10s, and sat 8th in points.

Hmiel returned to Busch Series competition at the 9th race of the season at Fontana for GIC-Mixon Motorsports, starting and finishing 32nd.

Shane Riley Hmiel (born May 15, 1980) is an American former racecar driver, who competed in all three of NASCAR's national series.

In 2001, Hmiel competed in the NASCAR Goody's Dash Series, earning the Rookie of the Year award with two wins and 13 top-10 finishes, finishing fifth in points.

Hmiel also ran a single ARCA Re/Max Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, finishing second.

Hmiel also qualified the No. 48 Chevrolet for Innovative Motorsports in Busch Series, the second-tier national series of NASCAR, at Memphis Motorsports Park, filling in for Kenny Wallace who raced the car.

For 2002, Hmiel moved to the Busch Series in the No. 47 Chevrolet for Innovative as a teammate to Wallace.

Initially planned to run a part-time schedule, sponsorship from Thomas Pacconi Classics, Goulds Pumps, and Mike's Hard Lemonade Co. expanded his schedule to the full season.

Hmiel opened his rookie season with a fifth-place finish at Daytona.

That 2002 season was most notable for his feud with fellow rookie Casey Mears where he and Mears got into some incidents during the season.

In 2003, Hmiel moved into Innovative's No. 48 car.

Hmiel's best NASCAR effort came at Indianapolis Raceway Park in August 2003, where he won the pole, led the most laps and staged a very competitive battle with eventual series champion Brian Vickers.

Vickers took his first career victory, while Hmiel finished fourth.

Hmiel was reinstated in 2004 after completing NASCAR's Road to Recovery program, and was picked up for the full Craftsman Truck Series season by Billy Ballew Motorsports, with crew chief Ritchie Wauters.

Hmiel scored his first and only NASCAR victory at the Las Vegas 350 in September, racing hard with Todd Bodine through lapped traffic, eventually bumping Bodine out of the way coming to the white flag.

Hmiel's controversial stock car career, marred by accidents from his aggressive driving style, ended in 2006 after he failed a third substance abuse test and was banned from competing in NASCAR for life.

After entering drug rehab in 2007, Hmiel's condition was properly diagnosed as Bipolar II disorder.

Hmiel began racing in go-karts, winning 164 races from the age of 12 to 15.

After quitting racing for three years, he began running late model stock cars.

In December 2009, the race was selected by media members as the greatest Nationwide Series race of the decade.

Hmiel also attempted to qualify for the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in July in the Winston Cup Series for Petty Enterprises' famed 43 car, with normal driver Christian Fittipaldi driving Petty's 44 car.

He did not, however make the race.

At the Funai 250 at Richmond International Raceway, Hmiel was involved in several on track incidents, beginning on lap 103 when he spun the lapped car of Randy MacDonald.

Late in the race with 5 laps to go, Hmiel was involved in an accident with Jason Keller.

Hmiel was moved out of line down the backstretch, then slipped up into Keller in turn three, sending Keller's 57 car into the wall driver's side first.

Hmiel was fined $5,000 and placed on probation for an altercation in the garage area after the race with Keller.

Fellow competitor David Green would later identify this race as a sign of bad times to come for Hmiel.

A week later on September 18, Hmiel was suspended indefinitely for failing a drug test, testing positive for marijuana.

According to NASCAR's substance abuse policy, the sanctioning body is allowed to administer drug tests, based only on "reasonable suspicion", at their sole discretion.

At the time, he was the highest-profile driver to fail such a test.

Hmiel was released from Innovative Motorsports, replaced with former Busch Series champion Jeff Green at Dover, then several other veteran drivers for the remainder of the season.

He was set to drive the 91 car for Evernham Motorsports that weekend at Dover coming up but the team withdrew after the suspension.

After rebuilding his career in open wheel racing, primarily in United States Auto Club sanctioned dirt track racing, Hmiel was paralyzed in a near fatal racing accident on October 9, 2010, in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Prior to the accident, Hmiel had become the first driver to win the Hoosier Hundred, Rich Vogler Classic, and the Pat O'Connor Memorial, the three premier USAC midget-car races, in the same season.

Shane is the son of Lisa Hmiel and Steve Hmiel, former NASCAR crew chief and later a competition director who worked for several teams including Roush Racing, Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and Swan Racing.

He also has a younger brother, Tyler Hmiel.

At age 5, Hmiel was misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

He began smoking cannabis at age 12, and on a daily basis through his teens and 20s.

Hmiel also admitted to using cocaine "about 100 times," and used drugs in part to medicate himself.

Despite the feud, Hmiel earned two poles (at Nashville and Loudon), two top 5s, and eight top 10s to finish 16th in points and third in Rookie of the Year standings behind Scott Riggs and Johnny Sauter.