NASCAR team owner reports to prison

NASCAR team owner Gene Haas has begun a two-year sentence for tax fraud at the Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc, Calif., according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Web site.

Haas owns two Sprint Cup teams, the No. 66 now driven by Scott Riggs and the No. 70 now driven by Jeremy Mayfield, but the case did not involve the teams, which are continuing operations as normal.

Haas pleaded guilty to one count of tax fraud in November and was required to surrender to authorities Monday. He is required to serve 85 percent of the sentence before being considered for release, so he likely will serve at least 20 months and 12 days in prison.

Haas, who was arrested in June 2006 after a lengthy investigation, agreed to pay $34.2 million in back taxes for the years 2000 and 2001, as well as a $5 million fine. With statutory penalties and interest on the back taxes, Haas has paid more than $70 million to the government to resolve his tax issues for 2000 and 2001.

Haas is the owner of Haas Automation, which is the largest dollar-volume machine tool builder in North America and the largest unit-volume builder of CNC machines in the world. Scenedaily.com