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Former NASCAR Driver Candace Muzny Found Dead a Month After Being Arrested for Attacking Manicurist

Former NASCAR driver Candace Muzny has died a month following her arrest, according to multiple outlets.

Officers found Muzny, 43, was found dead inside her Ski Island home near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on Monday, KOCO 5 reported.

Authorities told the local outlet at the time that there were no obvious signs of a homicide.

Though police initially called Muzny’s death suspicious, the medical examiner’s office since determined the cause of death as accidental drowning, according to a KFOR report published on Wednesday.

The Oklahoma City Police Department and the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Muzny was a regular competitor in the NASCAR Late Model Divisions and NASCAR K&N Pro Series, according to the Bleacher Report. She also participated in the 2007 Toyota All-Star Showdown and 2009 Last Chance Open.

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The driver’s death comes just one month after she attacked a nail salon employee for not speaking English.

On Jan. 12, Muzny was arrested and taken into police custody after slapping a manicurist for speaking Vietnamese to a coworker, according to the Associated Press.

She was also accused of threatening the woman with a pocket knife, as well as battery on a police officer who responded to the disturbance call, the news agency reported.

“We were speaking in our native language about my pay, and then she said to ‘f— stop speaking that language or I will slap you in the face,’” Tiffany Nguyen, the manicurist who was attacked, told the News9 in January.

“She got me cornered, and I fell,” Nguyen said. “But I was able to kick her, and she lunged and tried to put a knife up to my throat a couple of times.”

Candace Muzny
Candace Muzny

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Muzny later defended herself in an interview with Heavy.com, saying that she “backhanded” the nail technician because “I asked her three times to stop speaking Vietnamese to me. I was paying with the American dollar.”

“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,” she said. “She (the nail salon tech) needs to get back to Vietnam. If she wants to live in America and serve Americans, she needs to speak the language they speak.”

In response to accusations that she also attacked a police officer, Muzny told the online publication that she was “bum rushed” from behind and “did not stab an officer.”

Muzny said, “I’m honest as the day is long. I’ve always been that way. I’d give my last five dollars for anybody. I’m a very good person. I think all people have good and bad in them.”