Gene Haas, owner of Haas CNC Racing, is going to the pokey after admitting to one count of tax fraud. A court in Los Angeles handed down the sentence yesterday after a plea-bargain that resulted in Haas paying more than $70 million to the feds to make his tax problem go away. He's going to have to spend 85% of his two year sentence in federal prison (20 months and 12 days, at least). No word on whether it's a white collar resort prison or federal pound-you-in-the-ass prison.
Haas CNC is the highest grossing machine tool builder in North America, and the largest producer of CNC machines in the world. As an excuse for his action, his attorney claimed that he took some bad advice from some very bad people when he filed the erroneous returns. Team officials say it won't effect next season, as Haas usually watched the races from prison. [Insider Racing News]