Ex-NASCAR Driver Candace Muzny Found Dead A Month After Arrest On Assault Charge

Former NASCAR driver Candace Muzny was found dead in her home near Oklahoma City this week, one month after she was arrested for allegedly assaulting a nail salon employee.

Muzny, who lived near Ski Island Lake, was found dead at home on Monday afternoon, the Oklahoma City Police Department told Oxygen.com. Officers responded to the residence just before 4 p.m. after receiving a call regarding a female who was unresponsive and found the 44-year-old inside, police said.

The department’s homicide unit is currently investigating as they await the conclusion of the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s probe into Muzny’s cause of death, according to police.

“Although at this time there were no obvious signs of foul play, there were some suspicious circumstances at the scene,” a spokesperson for the department told Oxygen.com.

The Oklahoma Office Of The Chief Medical Examiner did not immediately return Oxygen.com’s request for comment. 

Candace Muzny poses during a portrait session for the K&N Pro Series East at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 16, 2012 in Bristol, Tennessee. Photo: Getty Images

Muzny, a former NASCAR driver, most recently competed in 2011 and 2012, according to an online racing reference website. Her death comes on the heels of her arrest last month where she was taken into custody on the night of Jan. 12 after allegedly slapping an employee at a nail salon for speaking Vietnamese, the Associated Press reports.

The professional racer was getting a pedicure when an employee began speaking in Vietnamese to another worker, at which point Muzny began yelling and then slapped one of the employees in the face, a police report obtained by The Associated Press alleges. She then allegedly brandished a pocket knife and punched another employee in the face when they tried to call the police, the AP reported.

Muzny is also alleged to have struck an officer who was trying to arrest her, hitting him behind the ear with her pocket knife and causing a small cut, the Associated Press reports. She was arrested on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a police officer, and released from the Oklahoma County jail the following day after posting $20,000 bail, according to the outlet.

Tiffany Nguyen, the nail salon employee who was attacked, described the incident during an interview with local outlet News9 last month.

“We were speaking in our native language about my pay, and then she said to ‘f--king stop speaking that language or I will slap you in the face,’” she said.

Nguyen said that Muzny — who was reportedly a regularly customer at the salon — then backed her into a corner, causing her to fall, and that she also threatened her by putting a knife to her throat “a couple of times,” according to the outlet.

Meanwhile Muzny defended her actions in an interview of her own. “I think if you’re speaking to an American who is a customer of yours, and you know they’re not Vietnamese, it’s rude to talk to them in a language they don’t understand… [The nail salon employee] needs to get back to Vietnam. If she wants to live in America and serve Americans, she needs to speak the language they speak," she told Heavy.com,

Following the discovery of Muzny’s body, her parents said that they were in shock, according to a KWTX report.