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For the third time in three weeks, former NASCAR driver James Edward Neal is in trouble with the law in Orange County -- now facing drug charges after previous separate allegations of attempted rape and reckless driving.

"I know it sounds pretty crazy," Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino said of Neal’s chain of arrests.

Neal, 56, was arrested Friday in a San Clemente motel where a bail bondsman allegedly spotted methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia and notified sheriff’s deputies, Amormino said.

The bail bondsman had gone to the motel to discuss with Neal the terms of his release from jail earlier in the day on charges of attempting to rape a 55-year-old Lake Forest woman May 31.