Auugust 10, 2009
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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The Jeremy Mayfield vs NASCAR saga has drawn on for months now with both sides trading blows and achieving small victories. Lawsuits have been flying back and forth, and the chances are that there will be no real winner.
Mayfield has asserted from the beginning that he has never taken methamphetamines, the drug NASCAR says they found in his system. He believes that NASCAR is attempting to make an example of him, even going so far as to state that NASCAR intentionally spiked his urine sample.
Weather or not that is the case remains to be seen, but as time goes on, it’s beginning to appear that NASCAR has Mayfield backed into a corner. The only significant victory Mayfield achieved was when a federal judge overturned his suspension, allowing him to race. However, Mayfield was unable to finance a return to the track, and the suspension has since been reinstated. And it is beginning to look more and more like Mayfield will never race in NASCAR again.
Until this entire mess got started, NASCAR had no reason to get rid of Mayfield, unless of course they wanted to make an example of him, which remains to be proven. But this is not the first time that something like this has happened in NASCAR.
In 1988, NASCAR instituted its first substance abuse policy and the first driver to test positive for “banned substances” was Tim Richmond.
After the 1986 season, Richmond had been diagnosed with AIDS, something that he kept secret, and his health began to rapidly deteriorate. He missed the first 11 races of the 1987 season claiming to be suffering from double pneumonia. He won two races that year, all the while, rumors circulated about him using drugs. When his health deteriorated even more, Richmond resigned from his role at Hendrick Motorsports in the fall of 1987.
Richmond tried to return in February of 1988 for the Busch Clash. However, he failed NASCAR’s drug test and never raced again despite that fact that he demanded another test and the results were clean, with the so called banned substances being cold medication.
Like Mayfield, Richmond filed a lawsuit against NASCAR, but dropped the case when the judge informed him that he would have to reveal his medical records. He went into seclusion and passed away in August of 1989.
With the trial date for Mayfield’s lawsuit against NASCAR being so far away, September 13, 2010, and with Mayfield already strapped for cash, it could be that NASCAR is hoping that he will either drop the case or at least be willing to settle it out of court. Judging from Mayfield’s actions so far, that is something that is extremely unlikely.
“I'm in this for the long haul,” Mayfield told WCNC, a television station in Charlotte, NC. “We're gonna fight it out.”
“Now that I don't have to worry about going back racing -- because obviously they are not going to let me -- I don't have to worry about what I say. It's like the bully in school [who] got ahold of the wrong little guy.”
Tim Richmond has been effectively swept under the rug by NASCAR. Most of the younger generation of race fans has never even heard of him. What will have happened to Jeremy Mayfield twenty years from now? Will he too have been swept under the rug?
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