Former NASCAR driver Shane Hmiel, who was banned for life from NASCAR in 2006 after failing a third drug test, has taken hard, careful and serious steps to revive his career.

They've landed him back in a race car. Last Saturday night, Hmiel won a USAC Western Sprint Car Series race on a quarter-mile paved track in Roseville, Calif. It was the first time he had driven a Sprint Car. But there's never been any doubt that Hmiel has talent. His trouble has stemmed from illegal use of drugs.

Hmiel fully believes those days are behind him, as do others who are providing him support. Their efforts put him into that race in Roseville, but Hmiel made the most important step himself.

"I went into a drug treatment facility in July for three and a half months," Hmiel said. "I needed to get my life back on track before I worried about getting my career back on track."

The Talbott Recovery Campus in Atlanta monitors its patients with outpatient treatment.

"When I went to graduate from there, you have three choices to do after you leave," Hmiel explained. "I decided to do drug testing every week just to keep me honest, to prove to people that I am sober."

Drug use had shattered Hmiel's promising future in NASCAR. He tested positive in September 200, for marijuana, in June 2005 for marijuana and cocaine, and early in 2006 for marijuana. NASCAR suspended and reinstated him twice, then threw the book at him for the third failed test, ending his career at age 25. He had notched one victory in 29 Craftsman Truck Series races, started 83 Nationwide races and seven Sprint Cup races.

He could still find places to race, local tracks in his home state of North Carolina that don't have substance abuse policies and would welcome a NASCAR race winner to sell tickets. Hmiel says he drove in 15 late model races on dirt tracks over the next year and a half.

"I wasn't trying to race," Hmiel said. "I wasn't in the best place at that time. I was kind of embarrassed and didn't feel like racing."

Hmiel had been seeing psychiatrists since he was five. "My parents spent tons of money," he said. "I've seen 10, maybe more. I saw three or four [after the lifetime suspension]. I'm not an idiot. I knew something was wrong.

"In June '06, I was diagnosed as bipolar. My whole life, I was misdiagnosed and was always taking the wrong medications. I couldn't ever get right. I was out of control."

Bipolar disorder is complex and goes beyond wild mood swings, from mania to depressive. It also leads to poor judgment and abnormal behavior, which sometimes manifests itself in substance abuse.

"I don't want to blame everything on a disease, but my brain was never wired properly until I got on the right medication," Hmiel said. "I know I messed up and self medicated myself to try to wire my brain right and that's not the way to do it. "When I went through treatment, they got me on the right medication. I'm a normal human being now. I don't have ten dollars in my pocket and I'm overwhelmed with bills and am trying to pay everything and I'm happier than I've ever been. I was so angry and disappointed with where I was in my life. I knew there was something wrong and it feels good when you actually fix what's wrong with you."

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