May 15, 2009
By Rebecca Gladden
As I'm sure you've heard by now, NASCAR announced Saturday that a driver in its Sprint Cup series failed a random drug test.
That driver turned out to be Jeremy Mayfield, who turns 40 in two weeks.
The incident marked the first time a Cup driver has been suspended for a drug violation since NASCAR instituted a 'zero tolerance' drug policy for the 2009 season.
NASCAR has declined to identify what Mayfield tested positive for, or even to categorize it as a legal (though banned) medication, a performance-enhancing substance, or an illicit street drug.
Within an hour of the press conference announcing his suspension, Mayfield released a statement saying that he has "immense respect" for NASCAR's enforcement policies, but that a "combination of a prescribed medicine and an over-the-counter medicine reacted together and resulted in a positive drug test." The medications in question were reportedly for seasonal allergies.
A spokesperson for the company that handles NASCAR's drug testing countered that the violation involved a "drug of concern" and that no combination of prescription and over-the-counter meds could have produced Mayfield's result on two separate, randomly-collected urine samples.
NASCAR instituted its stricter drug policy in part as a response to the stunning news that former Truck Series racer Aaron Fike had been arrested in 2007 for possession of heroin. Fike would later admit that he had raced under the influence of the potent narcotic.
Mayfield, once a high-profile driver in the NASCAR Cup Series, hasn't competed full-time since 2006 following his controversial firing by team owner Ray Evernham. This year, Mayfield was attempting a comeback with a team he co-owns. He's qualified for five of the first 11 races with a best finish of 32nd.
The suspension of a Cup series driver for drugs prompted a mess of bad press for NASCAR and has put the validity of the new policy under intense scrutiny.
Some argue that it is unfair to test drivers without providing a list of banned substances, which would presumably include medications like those Mayfield claims to have used.
But NASCAR spokesperson Ramsey Poston posted a Twitter message Monday stating, "NASCAR substance policy: the misuse or abuse of ANY drug is a violation - End of Story. The creation of lists is the creation of exceptions."
And that's where Mayfield made his mistake. As stock-car racing's sanctioning body, the sport is - and always has been - NASCAR's personal playground. They not only bring the ball, they own the court. NASCAR licenses drivers to compete in sanctioned races, and they can suspend those licenses for just about any reason.
If you knew that your career, your investment, your livelihood, and your reputation were dependent on passing a random drug test, would you risk it all to take a combination of allergy medicines without getting NASCAR's approval beforehand? Or at least determining whether the medications might adversely affect the drug test result?
That's assuming, of course, that Mayfield's claims about allergy medicine are to be believed.
With so much on the line, Jeremy Mayfield should have been smart enough to be proactive in this situation.
If he had been, perhaps all of this could have been avoided.
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