Road to Recovery: Shane Hmiel Adjusting to Life in a Wheelchair

At age 21, Shane Hmiel was on the fast track to NASCAR stardom. At age 30, he is a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic. Hmiel’s rise and subsequent fall can be either depressing or uplifting, depending on how you look at it. He was a brash, checkers or wreckers driver on the track. He won a Truck race and was leading laps in the Cup Series seemingly overnight. Hmiel would do whatever it took to win, and he even wrecked former Cup champion Dale Jarrett and flipped him the bird after doing so. Unfortunately, he lived life off the track in the fast lane as well. He began smoking marijuana at age 12, and he graduated to cocaine by the time he began his NASCAR career. Three failed drug tests forced NASCAR to make Hmiel the first driver in the sp...

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