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Shane Riley Hmiel (pronounced: "Meal") (born May 15, 1980) is an American former racecar driver, who competed in all three of NASCAR's national series. 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 rebuilding his career in Open-wheel car, 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.
After entering drug rehab in 2007, Hmiel's condition was properly diagnosed as Bipolar II disorder.
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, ITT Corporation, 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. Despite the feud, Hmiel earned two poles (at Nashville and Loudon), two top-fives, and eight top-tens to finish 16th in points and third in Rookie of the Year standings behind Scott Riggs and Johnny Sauter.
In 2003, Hmiel moved into Innovative's No. 48 car. After the first 26 races of the season, he already improved on his rookie season statistics, earning four top-fives and ten top-tens, and sat eighth in points. 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. 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.
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.
Hmiel returned to Busch Series competition at the ninth race of the season at Fontana for GIC-Mixon Motorsports, starting and finishing 32nd. After running three more races with GIC, he drove two races for Akins Motorsports' No. 38 Dodge, scoring a fourth-place finish at Milwaukee Mile. In late October, Hmiel was signed to Braun Racing, replacing David Stremme in the TrimSpa Dodge for the remainder of the season beginning at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He had a best finish of 22nd in four starts for Braun. Hmiel also made his Nextel Cup Series debut in September at Fontana in the 23 car for Bill Davis Racing. He ran 5 races for BDR, with a best finish of 24th at Kansas and Atlanta.
For 2005, Braun formed an alliance with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and switched to Chevrolet. The team was also joined by new sponsor WinFuel Multivitamins, produced by TripSpa's parent company. Hmiel was in a series of commercials with Dale Earnhardt Jr. to promote his sponsor's product. In addition to the full Busch Series schedule and a partial truck series schedule with Ballew, Braun and WinFuel fielded a 08 Chevrolet in a partial schedule in the Cup Series for Hmiel, debuting at Atlanta.
During the Sharpie 250 at Bristol in April, Hmiel was involved in a very heated incident with Cup Series veteran Dale Jarrett after Hmiel spun him out on the front stretch with three laps to go. The two were racing for 12th and 13th place, and Hmiel had bumped and ran the last three drivers he had passed before getting to Jarrett's 90 car. Later, When an angry Jarrett leaned into Hmiel's window to question why Hmiel had spun him out, Hmiel appeared to have no remorse for his driving, then flipped the middle finger toward Jarrett as the latter was walking away. The incident was captured live on Fox Sports' national television broadcast (especially the finger gesture pointed at Jarrett) through Hmiel's in-car camera. Hmiel was fined $10,000 and docked 25 points in the standings for the incident.
During his four-year NASCAR career, Hmiel appeared in seven Nextel Cup races, 83 Busch races, and 29 Truck Series races. He had one win: in the Truck Series' Las Vegas 350 in 2004.
Hmiel was not paid his 2005 salary for races prior to the suspension, as Braun Racing alleged that Hmiel signed the contract in bad faith due to health concerns, leading Hmiel to sue the team for over $135,000 in earnings and another $135,000 for "bad faith dealings" by the team. Under oath, Hmiel admitted that he violated NASCAR's substance abuse policy with a positive test for marijuana in 2003 and a positive test for marijuana and cocaine in 2005. Hmiel denied he was using drugs on a regular basis (at least once a week) in 2005. Hmiel denied that he had tested positive for heroin at any time from 2003 to 2005, and testified that he was not under the influence of any drug at any time while he was racing. Hmiel admits to positive tests for marijuana, cocaine The disposition of the lawsuit is unknown.
In 2009, Hmiel earned his first USAC-sanctioned win in the Sprint Car division at Iowa Speedway and scored a then-career-best dirt track finish of second in the Four Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway. Hmiel earned post-season honors as USAC's "Most Improved Driver." He was also named the Rookie of the Year in the 2009 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In 2010, he earned his first career Midget Series victory at Hickory Motor Speedway less than an hour from Mooresville, North Carolina, where he currently resides. The momentum from that victory carried on to other divisions. In the Sprint Car division, he broke the world speed record for a non-winged Sprint Car at Iowa Speedway, winning the pole with an average speed of 146.444 miles per hour. In addition to the speed record, he earned three victories, all on pavement, at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis (twice) and Salem Speedway. In the Silver Crown division, he earned his first career series win and first dirt track win in the Hoosier Hundred race at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. During the season Hmiel became the first driver to win the Hoosier Hundred, Rich Vogler Classic, and Pat O'Connor Memorial, the three premier USAC midget-car races, in the same season.
Hmiel was slated to make his debut in the Firestone Indy Lights series (the top feeder circuit to the IndyCar Series) at Chicagoland Speedway for the Chicagoland 100 on August 28, 2010, but a back injury kept him from competing in the race.
In January 2013, Hmiel returned to racing in a driving experience event at Rockingham Speedway, a track Hmiel had raced on during his career. The event, hosted by Accessible Racing, allowed Hmiel as well as two disabled military veterans to run laps on the track at over 100 mph in a modified Gen-4 Ford Fusion stock car.
In January 2016, Hmiel fielded a car at the Chili Bowl for Eric Saunders, a former motocross rider who had also been paralyzed in an accident.
| † - Qualified for Michael Waltrip |
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