July 13, 2009
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
|
The legal fiasco that NASCAR is currently involved in with Jeremy Mayfield has grown completely out of proportion. Both sides have gone back and forth with accusations until the real truth may never be known.
Mayfield still continues to vehemently deny that he has taken methamphetamine, the drug NASCAR has accused him of testing positive for, and states that the positive result stemmed from a combination of Claritin-D and Adderall – a prescription given for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Mayfield achieved a recent victory when a federal judge granted an injunction that temporarily lifts NASCAR’s suspension, allowing Mayfield to race. However, due to financial concerns, Mayfield has been unable to make the last two races.
Yet, regardless of weather or not he is guilty, the damages to Mayfield far exceed the besmirching of his name. To all appearances, he has been “blacklisted.” He has been unable to secure a sponsor, not really surprising given the current economy, and other owners have refused to let him drive their cars.
“Whether he's right, wrong or different right now, he's marked,” said car owner Tommy Baldwin in an AP article on nascar.com, “and that's going to hurt him probably for the rest of his career.”
NASCAR unveiled a new much needed drug policy at the beginning of the season that was supposed to be a vast improvement to the previous drug policy the series employed. Previously, NASCAR only issued drug tests when there was cause for suspicion. Now, under the new policy, they randomly test a certain number of drivers and crew members in each series every week.
However, the recent events with Mayfield have revealed very large holes in the new drug policy. The most glaring omission is the fact that there is no list of banned substances provided by NASCAR, a list that all other major sports provide.
The latest events in the case came last Monday when NASCAR officials decided to test Mayfield again. Both sides have their own version of the incident. Mayfield and his lawyer claim that NASCAR made the situation as difficult for him as possible. If he didn’t not submit to being tested, which he eventually did, it would have been considered an automatic positive, allowing NASCAR to suspend him again. NASCAR officials claim that standard notification for a test is two hours and Mayfield delayed for as long as he could, up to seven hours.
Mayfield has stated that he feels NASCAR is attempting to make an example out of him, an opinion that has credence when given consideration.
What if one of the elite drivers in NASCAR had tested positive? It would have brought the entire series to its knees, and there really would be a media circus similar to what happened in baseball not long ago with the steroid scandal. And if the positive test were a relatively unknown driver, it wouldn’t have garnered much media attention at all.
The damage has already been done to Mayfield, while NASCAR on the other hand could be in serious trouble if the test was indeed a false positive as Mayfield claims it to be.
“So all I got is the truth. That's all I got. All I can do is tell the truth, and I'm sick and tired of reading a bunch of lies. I want to do everything in my power to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth from here on out,” Mayfield said in an epsn.com article by Marty Smith.
“And I'm just tired of it. Mentally. Personally. It's what we deal with every day on a daily basis. I have nothing else to do. I go try to find a sponsor, nobody will talk to you. Try to find a ride, nobody will talk to you. So then what do I do? I'm not going to sit here anymore and get slammed by [NASCAR].”
If you would like to learn more about Matthew, please check out his web site at matthew-pizzolato.com.
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.
You can contact Matthew Pizzolato at ..