May 14, 2009
By Doug Demmons
As distasteful as it is to say something positive about Major League Baseball’s drug-testing program, I must do so.
Distasteful because the lords of baseball spent most of the last 20 years ignoring the steroids problem as juiced athletes turned the sport’s hallowed records into a mockery.
Commissioner Bud Selig was so deep in denial his nickname should be Cleopatra.
And yet baseball has managed to get at least one thing right -- when they do catch a steroids cheater or a drug user they let the public know exactly what substance was detected and why it is banned.
There’s no mystery. No one is left to guess whether the player was snorting enough coke to chalk a foul line or whether he was more juiced than a gallon of Minute Maid.
Baseball had its head in the sand and allowed the union tail to wag the sport’s dog but give baseball points for being up front when they do catch someone.
So you know NASCAR’s drug-testing program must be bad if it makes baseball’s look good.
Oh, sure -- when NASCAR announced this program last year it was hailed as the toughest on the planet. NASCAR was going to show the stick-and-ball sports how to crack down on druggies with a no-nonsense, no-excuses, full-frontal jihad.
Appeals and rules and unions would just muck things up. All that was missing was Buford Pusser and his baseball bat.
So no list of banned substances has ever been made public. Such a list, it was noted, would just tie NASCAR’s hands and thwart the need for “flexibility” because new drugs are introduced so quickly any list would be outdated as quickly as it was printed.
And if you happen to test positive for one of these secret compounds you are publicly branded as a substance abuser. Never mind that you might have taken a prescription medication not realizing it contained an ingredient on the banned list. As far as the world knows you’re the Darryl Strawberry of auto racing.
That’s because NASCAR does not divulge the substance you tested positive for. It’s all out of concern for your privacy, you see.
And there’s no appeal. And you’re suspended until NASCAR says you can come back.
That has a certain appeal to a lot of people. No lawyers, just instant justice. The problem with instant justice, however, is that sometimes the folks who were strung up weren’t actually rustling cattle.
And that’s why NASCAR needs to come clean with its drug-testing policy. It needs to publish a list of banned substances. The World Anti-Doping Agency publishes a list annually. So can NASCAR.
It also needs to identify the substance that a driver or crew member tested positive for. To refuse to do so leads to speculation and conspiracy theories. It also denies the public the opportunity to weigh the magnitude of the offense. Not all instances of using unapproved substances are worthy of suspensions, as the Ron Hornaday case last year demonstrated.
The current policy is just a lawsuit waiting to happen. It hasn’t gotten ugly yet because those caught before last week were crew members without the means to hire high-priced legal Dobermans.
But start suspending drivers with large bank accounts and a lot to lose from an indefinite suspension and the lawyers will swarm like locust.
That’s probably what it will come to before NASCAR changes the policy. And it’s a shame, because NASCAR really did have a chance to show the stick-and-ball guys how to do it right.
Doug Demmons is a writer and editor for the Birmingham News ~ he writes daily and weekly auto racing columns ranging from NASCAR to open wheel to Formula One, local tracks and more... you can read Doug's columns online at Blog of Tommorow
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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