Aaron Fike: NASCAR Never Had A Clue

April 11, 2008

By Brenda Benedict

Darrell Waltrip describes NASCAR’s awareness of cheating, or innovation as Darrell called it, during the early days of NASCAR in his autobiography titled DW, a Lifetime Going Around in Circles. In DW, Waltrip describes the great lengths that teams would go through to make their cars faster by circumventing the rules of NASCAR. He states, “We spent hours and hours thinking about how to get something past NASCAR. That was always our goal, and it was always exciting. Most of the time, NASCAR never had a clue.”

The same phrase, NASCAR never had a clue, may be appropriate to describe NASCAR’s awareness of the drug problem that driver Aaron Fike was facing in the past few years.

Aaron Fike has opened a can of worms with his revelation about drug use while racing in an ESPN, The Magazine article that was publishing this week. His confession that he raced on days he had injected heroin may prove to have far reaching results.

Aaron Fike, a young racer from Illinois, had a promising career in USAC, the United States Auto Club, which included National Midget Series Rookie of the Year in 2000 and Silver Crown Rookie of the Year in 2001.

In 2004, Fike began racing in the Busch Series. During the next three years, he raced for Brewco Motorsports and then Kevin Harvick Incorporated. In 2007 Fike drove for Red Horse Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series and had four top-ten finishes before his arrest on drug charges.

Fike and his girlfriend were arrested for drug use in a parking lot of an amusement park by park personnel and local police. He initially pleaded non-guilty to charges of possession of heroin and drug paraphernalia. In November 2007, Fike plead guilty to possession of a drug abuse instrument and a reduced charge of attempted possession of heroin.

Fike was suspended by NASCAR four days after his arrest. This week Fike’s story has made national headlines with the latest edition of ESPN The Magazine. In the article Fike admitted that he used heroin on the same day as driving in the Craftsman Truck Series.

In the ESPN article Fike details his drug abuse difficulty that started with Vicoden for pain relieve for a racing injury. This escalated into the abuse of OxyContin and finally heroin. The heroin started as a once a week use and developed into a daily habit.

NASCAR’s response to media questions about their drug use policy has been that their policy has been effective in regulating drug use by its drivers and crew members. This policy was implemented in the late 1980’s and allows NASCAR to conduct random drug and alcohol tests without warning on anyone with a NASCAR competitor’s license where there is reason for suspicion of drug use.

"No system is perfect," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice president of corporate communications. "Our current policy has served us extremely well. We do have discussions from time to time regarding possible alternatives, so I wouldn't rule those out. But I think what our policy has allowed us to do up to this certain point in time, it has served us well."

Aaron Fike’s admission to drug use on race day delivers a slap in the face to NASCAR’s policy. This policy needs to reflect what we know about society as a whole. Drug use is at epidemic proportions. The percentage of improper drug use, which includes illegal drugs and legal drugs used illegally, runs around 8% of our population. The numbers are much higher for younger people.

In the years since NASCAR’s drug policy has been in force, only six people have been suspended by NASCAR. Five were drivers who tested positive for drug or alcohol use.

NASCAR believes that officials, other drivers and crew members work closely enough together to be aware of suspicious behavior and that they will notify NASCAR when drug abuse is present. This brings back memories of how NASCAR used to conduct inspections on cars. According to Darrell Waltrip’s autobiography DW, Waltrip describes that NASCAR has open garage areas with teams bunched together to insure that teams could watch each other. Darrell states that “the tattletale scenario didn’t happen as often as you might think.”

NASCAR has now implemented a very stringent program of pre and post race inspections including the use of measurements, gauges and templates for all parts of the car. These have resulted in a safer and more identical car. This past racing season has brought almost weekly fines, suspensions and points lost due to nonconforming cars.

NASCAR would do well to address the use of drugs within their sport with the same aggressiveness and proactive energy that they use to ensure that the equipment used meets their specifications. At a time when other national sports are suffering in the eyes of the public because of rampant drug use, it would be to NASCAR’s benefit to step up to this issue and to get a clue.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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