Be thankful this holiday season. Be very thankful. I just read where the Joker snuck up on a driver and ran a rough road-course through his veins.

In The Needle And The Spoon, Skynyrd sings:

I’ve been feelin’ so sick and tired

Got to get better, lord before I die

Seven doctors couldn’t help my head, they said

You better quit, son before your dead.

Former NASCAR Truck Series driver Aaron Fike is a son that for all intents and purposes, was dead. Ah, almost.

Fike said his addiction to heroin was so freakin’ bad, he stopped breathing and nearly bit the pony, bought the big by or crapped the bed (Lugg’s favorite death metaphor).

Life’s ATM was run dry. No teller was going to loan the guy a High Life.

Neil Young sings in Needle And The Damage Done:

I caught you knockin'

at my cellar door

I love you, baby,

can I have some more

Ooh, ooh, the damage done.

Fike and his front seat fiancée wanted so much more that when the Cincinnati fuzz popped’em in his car, they found bloody napkins, needles, a spoon and black tar heroin.

Yep, his pill box was full of freak, full of death, full of failure.

Their prize? He and Cassandra Davidson were supercharged with possession of heroin and then some. Felonious Fike.

Fike’s conciliation? NASCAR kicked him out indefinitely and at 25 years old Fike faced a possible 1 year jail sentence for the felony.

Worse, an I-95 road trip full of rest areas that just might kill’em.

Look, this ain’t some slick faced teen dippin’ his junk on the reefer or an educated Harvard grad room testing some hooch.

Fike was shoving the heater in his veins to get his high.

I know, a NASCAR driver that was in the top ten in points and was signing autographs for some clean teens. Now, he’s as leathered as any brown bagger 40 years his senior.

Fike says he has beaten this thing and just as the hammer was set to nail it, Fike presented a plan to the prosecutor. He wants to get his message of stupidity to young folk and racetrack rowdies about the hazards of dippin’ the wick.

The prosecutor liked the sound of Fike’s flip and gave him two years probation.

I’m not going to judge, I’m going to be the jury and I am certainly not going to criticize a cat that was sleeping with the Reaper.

But, the last verse of Needle and The Damage Done:

I've seen the needle

and the damage done

A little part of it in everyone

But every junkie's

like a settin' sun.

That's what I Freakin' think.

You?

Shoot me an email @ kennys@speedfreaks.tv or give me a holler at the office 818-995-9159.