Former NASCAR Driver Candace Muzny Found Dead in Home

Police say a woman found dead in her home Monday was a former NASCAR driver. They’re calling the death suspicious. Candace Muzny, 43, was in the news last month after allegedly punching a nail technician for not speaking English. Muzny also was accused of cutting the responding police officer with a knife

NTD Newsroom

Published: 2/21/2020, 12:41:20 PM EST

Former NASCAR Driver Candace Muzny Found Dead in Home — Candace Muzny, during qualifying for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series in 2011. Muzny was found dead at her Oklahoma City home on February 17. Police called her death suspicious until the cause of death is determined by the Medical Examiner's Office (Jerry Markland/NASCAR/Getty Images)

Former NASCAR driver Candace Muzny was found dead in her Oklahoma City home on Monday, police said.

The medical examiner's office ruled Muzny's cause of death an accidental drowning, KFOR reported on Wednesday.

Oklahoma police found the 43-year-old dead in her Ski Island home on Monday evening, initially calling the death "suspicious" but saying there were no obvious signs that a homicide occurred, reported local station KOCO.

Muzny's neighbor, Raushae Jones, said she saw family gathered outside Muzny's home on the 10100 block of Island View Drive at about 5 p.m. and knew there was something wrong.

"I just pulled in right there, and the woman was already in the front crying, and she was on the phone with somebody," Jones told KRON.

"They always seemed like nice people, so I didn't really—I don't know. It was just shocking," Jones said. "Nothing's ever happened here, like ever," Jones added.

Candace Muzny looks on from the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Dover 150 at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware, on Sept. 30, 2011. (Jerry Markland/NASCAR/Getty Images) — Candace Muzny looks on from the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Dover 150 at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware, on Sept. 30, 2011. Jerry Markland/NASCAR/Getty Images

Muzny's death comes just three days after she was released from jail on Feb. 14. She was arrested and charged in January for allegedly hitting a nail technician for speaking Vietnamese to her boss, as well as assaulting the responding police officer with a pocketknife, reported KWTV News 9.

"She had all of her stuff everywhere, and she was already going a little nuts," said the nail technician Tiffany Nguyen of the nail salon Muzny visited in January.

Muzny appeared twice in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series, once in 2011 and once in 2012, according to Racing-Reference.info.

She also formed her own racing team, called CNM Racing, in Mooresville in 2009 and was vice president of Arrow Wrecker Service, a towing operations company founded in 1969 by Al Muzny, presumably her father.