BGN Driver Arrested UPDATE: A NASCAR driver in Central Florida for SpeedWeeks is under arrest for drugs. A deputy pulled over Sammy Potashnick in Flagler county. The deputy arrested Potashnick after noticing his car going north in the southbound lane on a divided road… heading right for him. When deputies finally pulled him over, they say he didn’t know where he was at the time. Police say he admitted to taking numerous vicatin painkillers without a prescription and smoking crack cocaine. Both of which were found inside the car. Potashnick who was in town to get more sponsors for his racing company, was scheduled to make his Busch series debut next weekend in Rockingham(NC). No word if that will happen. NASCAR is investigating the incident.(icFlorida/WFTV/Insider Racing)(2-15-2002) UPDATE: Sammy Potashnick was arrested Thursday and charged with possession of crack cocaine and prescription drugs without a prescription. Potashnick, 27, of Sikeston, MO., who is second in NASCAR’s Winston West Series and was scheduled to drive in this year’s Busch Series, has won more than $12,000 in the Winston West Series this year in his No. 65 Chevrolet. Potashnick had been scheduled to drive in the BGN for Jay Robinson’s #49 team at the Rockingham 200 in North Carolina next Saturday. Robinson, in Daytona Beach for Speed Weeks, said it was too soon to say whether Potashnick would be allowed to drive the #49 car next week. Potashnick was not scheduled to race this week at Daytona. He was arrested on Old Kings Road about 4:30 a.m. Thursday after what a Flagler County sheriff’s deputy described as a near head-on collision. According to authorities, Potashnick was on the wrong side of the road driving north on Old Kings Road near its intersection with Palm Coast Parkway. When deputy Jason Jolicoeur turned south onto the road, Potashnick swerved to avoid him. Jolicoeur decided to pull Potashnick over. The race car driver was disoriented, carrying prescription drugs of some kind without a prescription bottle and had a rock of crack cocaine in a cigarette box stashed in the center console of his rental car, the Sheriff’s Office said. Deputy David Edmonds, riding with Jolicoeur, arrested Potashnick after the brief interview, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Potashnick was taken to Memorial Hospital-Flagler to be checked out, then to the Flagler County Inmate Facility where he was booked on the charges and subsequently released on $10,000 bail. Officials from Lucas Oil Products Inc., which sponsors Potashnick’s SP Racing team, expressed surprise Thursday night on learning of the news, but said they would have no comment until Friday morning. Jolicoeur said Potashnick told the deputies he had taken some prescription drugs after a family argument.(Daytona Beach News Journal)(2-15-2002)
