dark. Following questioning, when one of them smelled cannabis on their clothing, his father was apprehended on his 42-foot boat named Lady Royale, where customs discovered residue of marijuana and $10,000 onboard. A rented truck was discovered nearby, which contained 1,565 pounds (710 kg) of marijuana. In court, all three pleaded guilty to marijuana possession charges, where each was placed on three years' probation and fined $32,500. Paul's racing career was interrupted in May 1986, when he was sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in a drug trafficking ring with his father and subsequent refusal to testify against him. He was sent to a minimum-security prison in Alabama. He served a total of 30 months, being released in October 1988. Retirement and death Paul Jr. retired from professional racing in 2001 after noticing that the telemetry of the Corvette GT-1 he was testing did not match what he thought his feet were doing in the car. A subsequent medical evaluation confirmed he had Huntington's disease, a progressive neurological disorder. In 2018, author and racing journalist Sylvia Wilkinson published a book about Paul Jr., titled 50/50, The Story of Champion Race Car Driver John Paul Jr. and his Battle with Huntington's Disease. Paul Jr. died on December 29, 2020, in Woodland Hills, California. Racing record Career highlights American Open Wheel racing results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) CART IndyCar NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.) Winston Cup Series Indianapolis 500 results Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results Complete 24 Hours of Daytona results Complete 12 Hours of Sebring results References 1960 births 2020 deaths 12 Hours of Sebring drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers American Le Mans Series drivers American people of Dutch descent Atlantic Championship drivers Champ Car drivers Neurological disease deaths in California Deaths from Huntington's disease IMSA GT Championship drivers Indianapolis 500 drivers IndyCar Series drivers NASCAR drivers People convicted of racketeering Racing drivers from Indiana SCCA National Championship Runoffs participants Sportspeople from Muncie, Indiana Trans-Am Series drivers World Sportscar Championship drivers PDM Racing drivers Team Joest drivers Corvette Racing drivers Team Pelfrey drivers Bettenhausen Racing drivers AFS Racing drivers Dale Coyne Racing drivers