Nick Hogan starts drag racing charity, half apologizes for accident

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Nick Hogan sure has some good PR people working for him. For a long time it was hard to figure out why he hadn’t hired anyone to help him tame his douchiness. Well, not tame it in terms of his actual personality. Just learn how to hide it from the public, and do a better job of saying what everyone wants to hear. You know, how he actually feels regular human emotions like regret and sadness and thinks about things other than himself. Oh, and the children. He wants to help the children. Radar Online has a new video interview with Nick Hogan where he sort-of apologizes for leaving his friend in a permanent vegetative state after a drunken drag race on a public street – only he does it in a roundabout way by never mentioning what he did, never mentioning his friend by name, and saying that he’s going to start a charity for kids – in which they’ll be drag racing.

With autumn rapidly approaching, Nick Hogan is ready to turn over a new leaf.

Just shy of two years removed from his darkest hour — the August 2007 crash in Florida that left him behind bars, and friend John Graziano badly injured — the 19-year-old son of wrestling legend Hulk Hogan held nothing back about his past, present and future in an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com on Thursday.

“Something I’d want people to know now, is that I’m very sorry about my accident that happened and I feel the most regret in the world over that day, August 25 and I pray everyday over what happened, and everyone that was involved,” Nick told RadarOnline.com reporter Katie Rhames.

It’s been more than 25 years since Hulk Hogan became a household name and worldwide role model to children advising them to train, say their prayers and eat their vitamins. Now, Nick is following in his father’s footsteps in becoming a mentor and role model to kids with KIOTT, an organization he devised while in jail with aims to provide younger people with a safe venue to sow their wild oats behind the wheel.

“What KIOTT is, is an advocacy group I started that takes kids off the streets and puts them in racetracks, just a motivational thing to gets kids to stop doing stupid stuff on the streets.” Nick told RadarOnline.com. “I moved on in a positive way with KIOTT, and trying to do everything I can to give back to the community I took so much away from.”

While Nick candidly admitted that the loneliness he felt during his jail sentence was traumatizing, he said some good came out of the soul searching he did with the extra time he had on his hands.

“While I was in there, I really had a lot of time to think about everything that was going on in my life, and who I am inside,” Nick told Rhames. “At the time with the divorce, there was so much going on I had no control of… I really, really got in touch with what I feel I’m being called to do, and doing the right things and helping other people out.”

[From Radar]

Nick Hogan couldn’t turn over a new leaf if he were an oak tree. Ooooh, snap, arbor humor! I am so confused about his charity thing. He’s really vague, but what it sounds like is Nick is trying to get kids “off the streets” and onto the racetrack. But the problem is he nearly killed his friend John Graziano – who he conveniently never even named in the interview – by drag racing. On the street. So when he says he’s getting kids off the streets, does he mean it in the gang sense? General teenage hooliganism? Or does he mean it in terms of kids that are racing on the streets? He doesn’t say, and if he means it in terms of anything other than getting kids to stop drag racing, then he’s a moron.

Okay a little more research makes it clear the organization Keep It On The Track is indeed aimed at taking kids who want to drag race on the street and putting them on a track instead. And while that’s certainly better than the street, I’d argue that it’s still inappropriate for Nick to be involved with it. He was a track racer when he got in the crash nearly two years ago. It seemed to just fuel his fire and give him more of a drive to race any and everywhere he could. Maybe that’s a desire that’s just there with some people, and if you can steer it to a safer place, great. But it didn’t work for Nick, so he’s really not doing any favors by promoting the organization.

And while he does take some responsibility – finally – it’s way too little and way too late. He should have been crying about this on every show that would have him. Instead he got out of jail and went right back to racing his cars and living his life. There’s no apology I’d accept after two years. Time does not heal all wounds: in fact some grow deeper and are compounded by the fact that it took the person so long to do the right thing. It’s easy to assume Nick is genuine and was young and try to give him another chance. He said some right things. But he’s only saying them because someone smarter than is telling him to. There’s no real remorse there, or it would have been there a long time ago.

Here are Nick and Hulk at Brooke’s birthday party on May 5th in Vegas. Images thanks to WENN.com .

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23 Responses to “Nick Hogan starts drag racing charity, half apologizes for accident”

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  1. caitlinsmommmy says:

    the fact that he can’t even mention his victim by name…. I mean they were friends! – tells me this isn’t sincere.

    what a disgusting waste of oxygen.

  2. Mommy says:

    I wonder if he can’t legally mention his victim by name?

  3. Eileen Yover says:

    Yeah it’s amazing how suddenly a spoiled rich asshole becomes sorry when his career goes into the toilet.

  4. Sister Mary Francis says:

    hate. hate these two turds.

  5. Firestarter says:

    He needs to be on the bus to hell ASAP!

  6. Jonihateschachi says:

    Ok the kids a douchebag.. You know damn well he’s torn up about what happened. We dont know him personally to know what his thoughts are. Just think how you would feel had that happened to you. It’s a horrible horrible situation. But it was an accident…

  7. PAZUZU says:

    A more appropriate statement would have read “As my friend will never be able to enjoy anything ever again due to my reckless behavior, I hereby swear to never drive again, to have nothing to do with cars, I’ll give all my cars to my friends family to help them pay medical bills and I’ll wear a shirt with my friends picture on it clearly showing his injury so that I too will have to live with it everyday, for the rest of my life”.

  8. sigh says:

    So, in other words, he STILL thinks its about him.
    This reads as my sis ain’t selling enough albums to support me, my mom is already “backing” a dude my age, and my dad spends his money on bronzer and bleach, so now I got to make my own dough. I’ll be back in a minute with my product.
    Talk to me when the VICTIM and HIS family has forgiven him.
    Think about it.

  9. the original kate says:

    this whole family gives me the willies.

  10. j. ferber says:

    The way he phrases it, “I’m very sorry about my accident that happened” still shows that he’s not taking responsibility. The passive “my accident that happened” still distances him from his role in causing the crash. It didn’t just “happen:” he made it happen. Even “I’m very sorry” could be in the way someone says, “I’m very sorry for what happened to you,” in commiseration and sympathy, not admission of guilt. I think he’s “very sorry” for himself, though, not John, for this huge public relations nightmare he must endure (unjustifiably in his mind, no doubt). Just awful.

  11. tamikla says:

    Geez! Is today national douche day? Jon Gosslin, Joe Jackson, Nick and Hulk Hogan and whatever that Russian girl of Mel’s name is. I must go out and buy a card. I wonder if Hallmark has something?

  12. tamikla says:

    Oops, I forgot Omarosa.

  13. Daniel says:

    What a douche, who’s worse, him or Michael Lohan? lol. He needs to publicly appologize once and for all to the families, which he hasn’t done. He got out of jail early and hasn’t learned anything really. He’s back to doing what got him into trouble, drag racing, only this time he “legitimizes” it by saying it’s charity. If I were him I wouldn’t even OWN a fast car let alone be in that kind of setting. If he wants the public to think he’s a new guy he should give up fast cars altogether. He should also seriously think about getting a college degree too if he wants a career other than “hulk Hogan’s son”. By doing those two things he can give himself more options AND people will take him more seriously. Right now he’s just a spoiled douchebag who got away with manslaughter…..

  14. j. ferber says:

    You’re absolutely right, Daniel. Throw in some public service announcements, real charity work, a settlement with the family, etc. and he’d be on his way to public rehabilitation (though surely he wouldn’t change in his heart-if he even has one).

  15. SNS says:

    So he wants to help kids by teaching them how to drive fast cars, which will probably give them a need-for-speed and then they will go find a real car and drive it twice the speed limit and…. yep…. kill or injure someone.

    Does the guy have a brain cell in his head?

    He perminatly injured a guy through driving, and now he wants to use driving as a means to help kids!

    Talk about inappropriate. The guy should be stearing clear of any and all racing events of any kind out of respect.

    How the hell did he ever get his license back in the first place? How was he not perminantly banned from driving?

  16. Emily says:

    Actually, having a safe(r) place to race can reduce the number of kids dragging on public roads. They’re going to do it anyway, so it’s good to get them off the roads, and onto a track that’s designed for high speed vehicles.

  17. SNS says:

    I could be wrong, and its just my opinion, but if he was truly sorry, wouldn’t be trying to create a charity to raise money for the poor bloke he ingured and is in hospital.

    Isn’t a lifetime of medical care going to be costing that lads family a fortune?

    This was my point I was trying to make. Instead of doing somethin to actually show he is truly sorry, and doing something which will benefit and help the actual person he injured…

    …he just makes another excuse to keep driving cars!! I understand it might get the kids off the streets, but maybe he should be giving the kids something ELSE to do then learn to drive cars fast.

    Build them a skate park or create a youth center instead.

    Its just the fact he doesnt realise how inappropriate his idea is concerning how his “friend” got ingured. You would think the lad would want to keep away from cars after that.

  18. Andia330 says:

    Okay….Seriously, what happened with Nick and John(better known to you all as “the victim”) was an accident caused by stupid decisions. Of course he isn’t gonna be looked at the same but he still has to go on living his life and at least he is trying to do something positive with it. It is unfortunate and sad what happened to John, I get it really I do. But Nick can’t change the past, John can’t change the past, and you can’t change the past. The only thing left to do is move forward and hope that the future can make up for the past.

  19. Drea says:

    True, Andia330! He has to start over somehow. It sucks what happened to John but nobody can do anything about it now. Oh and by the way, does anybody other than me think that if it wasn’t a celebrity’s kid then it wouldn’t have mattered to the public. I’m not sayin that it was right, but think about it. If it was some poor country kids that it happened to, would anybody care as much as they do now? I personally don’t think so. And I am not trying to say that John deserved what he got, nobody does, but why would he had gotten in the car with Nick if he knew that Nick had been drinking. People are putting all of the fault on Nick when John made choices that put himself in that situation. It is sad but choices have concequences, obviously.

  20. Dimitri says:

    Yeah!!!!! Get off his JOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  21. connie says:

    eileen- what career was that exactly? being a celebrity child? can’t stand this family. or the shoddy way too late PR move trying to show he’s sowwy

  22. Magsy says:

    It’s Biker Santa.

  23. delloyello says:

    Its ridiculous
    That poor man I heard has not recieved a dime from this so caled charity they actually said hulks own words he has to go on a waiting list, no that kid doesnt have a functioning brain cell in his head and we all know why he started this so called charity this was about his image and his image only its a sickening situation because of his carelessness that poor man will never be the same fights for our country in iraq but gets into a car with nick hogan and almost ended his life his family should sue him for everything he has and use that money for rehabilitation, KARMA IS A BITCH !!!!!