The son of Hulk Hogan pleaded no contest to charges of felony reckless driving on Friday and was sentenced to eight months behind bars.

In August last year, the 17-year-old Nick Hogan—real name Nick Bollea— was street racing with his yellow Toyota Supra against a silver Dodge Viper, at speeds of over 60 mph through a 40 mph zone, when he lost control of his car, struck a curb and spun 180 degrees across two lanes of traffic before slamming rear-end first into a palm tree. His friend, John Graziano, 22, who was on the passenger seat, was left with permanent brain damage.

In addition to the jail sentence, effective immediately, Bollea was placed under five years probation, during which he will serve 500 hours of community service, not being allowed to drink any alcohol and having his driver's license revoked for three years.
Without the plea bargain, Bollea could have served up to five years in a state penitentiary.

"I miss John being around me all the time. I know this has been extremely difficult for the Grazianos, and it has also been extremely difficult to my family, and I feel terrible about it," said Bollea, star of VH1'a reality show "Hogan Knows best".

"I would like to apologize to the Grazianos and to my family for the accident. Every single day I think about the accident and about John," he added.

He then turned around to look at the Graziano family and said: "I will never ever be able to say I'm sorry enough."

Bollea was arrested in November and charged with felony reckless driving that caused a serious bodily injury. Following the impact, Graziano, a former Marine who served in Iraq, needs lifetime medical care after suffering a broken skull and other severe injuries.

Graziano's family said through an attorney they were satisfied with the verdict, but wished the judge would have found Bollea guilty.

Speaking on his son's behalf after watching the officers escort Nick outside the courtroom, Hulk said: "Nick is not the person that he's been asked to be portrayed on TV. ... Nick is a good person. He is kind, he is gentle, he's compassionate, and he doesn't have a bad bone in his body. And people fail to realize that Nick is still a 17-year-old child."