NASCAR Sprint Cup Driver fails drug test

[Hazard]

Breaking news.

The driver's not been named yet - but is likely to be in the next 10 minutes or so at a press conference just before the race tonight begins.

The driver has been suspended, that's all that is known.

[Hazard]

Named already - it's Jeremy Mayfield. Suspended indefinately

http://www.thatsracin.com/140/story/8783.html

[kelvin88]

others involved too. news now on Nascar.com

[FIRE]

Don't know what to think about these drug tests. IMO NASCAR should say what the substance is. Until then there's a lot of speculation.

[R59]

According to Jeremy, his test fail was due to the combination of prescribed drugs from his doctor, and some over the counter drugs. NASCAR have said that there's no appeal procedure, so you can bet there will be some legal moves if Mayfield is right.

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by R59

According to Jeremy, his test fail was due to the combination of prescribed drugs from his doctor, and some over the counter drugs. NASCAR have said that there's no appeal procedure, so you can bet there will be some legal moves if Mayfield is right.

Likely not. Their policy is mostly based off other American sports leagues, where the policies of the four leagues has been "you have full responsibility for what you put in your body", especially in the past couple years after all the steroids stuff. So unless it was some kind of "false positive", I don't think Mayfield would have much recourse. The difference between those leagues though and NASCAR is that they have collective bargaining where the penalties and the policy were agreed to by the employees.

He's also suspended as an owner, although I doubt he'd've put anyone in his car if he was just banned as an driver.

[Knowlesy]

Why is drugs testing such a big deal in motorsport?

[fieldodreams79]

well, Kevin Grubb met a similar fate as Mayfield and his story turned out to be very sad...entirely too young for someone to pass. i'm not sure what to think about it, to be honest, but the below is from Kevin Grubb's entry in wikipedia; gives a little "background" on Grubb's drug tests and NASCAR's testing policy, and it is very "nascar" indeed.

NASCAR's Substance Abuse Policy allows NASCAR to administer drug tests virtually any time, anywhere, based only on "reasonable suspicion."
Grubb failed a substance abuse test in March 2004, and was inactive until June 2006 when he was reinstated by NASCAR. One of the conditions of his reinstatement was random, unannounced drug tests, a condition to which he agreed. He participated in five Busch events before being suspended indefinitely on September 11, 2006, when he refused to take a drug test following a second-lap crash at Richmond. Failure to take the test resulted in automatic suspension.
The next day, Grubb claimed that his failure to take the test was a result of confusion following a concussion suffered during the race,[ and offered to take a drug test at that time. He was cleared by the infield hospital following the crash, but was diagnosed with a concussion the next day at a local hospital. He claimed no memory of the refusal to submit to a drug test.
In a comparable situation, NASCAR driver Shane Hmiel was offered a chance at reinstatement after a second such infraction, under condition that he submit to medical and psychological reviews, and frequent drug testing before reinstatement. In February, 2007, Hmiel failed a drug test, and was banned for life.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Why is drugs testing such a big deal in motorsport?

not sure if your being fecisious, but Aaron Fike presents a good arguement for testing in nascar at least.

Former truck racer Fike admits using heroin on race days

[R59]

Originally Posted by Flyin Ryan

Likely not. Their policy is mostly based off other American sports leagues, where the policies of the four leagues has been "you have full responsibility for what you put in your body", especially in the past couple years after all the steroids stuff. So unless it was some kind of "false positive", I don't think Mayfield would have much recourse. The difference between those leagues though and NASCAR is that they have collective bargaining where the penalties and the policy were agreed to by the employees.

He's also suspended as an owner, although I doubt he'd've put anyone in his car if he was just banned as an driver.

That's the issue, Jeremy has consulted his Doctor who feels that it is a false positive caused by the combination of prescribed and over the counter drugs. For his car to run at the next race, it will have to gain a "new owner", and obviously a backup driver while this mess is sorted out.

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

not sure if your being fecisious, but Aaron Fike presents a good arguement for testing in nascar at least.

Former truck racer Fike admits using heroin on race days

Well yes, but I am guessing that most do drugs in their spare time. Particularly those drivers with perhaps more spare time than others.

If they were doing it on race weekends they should be slung out, but any other time then frankly who cares.

[kelvin88]

Heroin is not really a spare time kind of drug, mate. You can't pick it up and put it down as you please.

[fieldodreams79]

i'm in total agreement with the two previous posts.
IMO, you got to draw the line somewhere....NASCAR drew it at the very top and then precedes to stick their fingers in their ears.

not at all the way i would handle this situation, but then again, there would be no CoTerrible and they'd still be racing at North Wilkesboro and the Rock if i ran NASCAR.

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Why is drugs testing such a big deal in motorsport?

It's not. But NASCAR and most every other sport (even golf) had to pay lip service to the whole "drugs in sports" debate that baseball had created in the last 5 years and come up with at least a token policy. Baseball went before a congressional inquiry (why? other than ego I don't know, but they did) and were made to look foolish and no other sports wants to have to deal with that.

not sure if your being fecisious, but Aaron Fike presents a good arguement for testing in nascar at least.

And Shane Hmiel, who was banned for life after offending the policy 3 times.

R59: That's the issue, Jeremy has consulted his Doctor who feels that it is a false positive caused by the combination of prescribed and over the counter drugs.

Fine. He's going to have to prove it though.

For his car to run at the next race, it will have to gain a "new owner", and obviously a backup driver while this mess is sorted out.

He could. I'm just betting no because that would mean that Mayfield would have to pay the driver. Since he's the owner of the car, he doesn't have to pay the driver right now and that fact probably helps make the whole setup make better sense for him on the bottom line. Mayfield owns a team right now for himself to race, partly because he has burned a lot of bridges.

I think the standard number for your mainstream teams is that the driver earns 40% of the prize money earned in a race. If you say it's less for a backmarker team to where we're talking 20%, that's still something like $7-10k minimum per race that Mayfield enters and races in that he doesn't have to shell out. Also consider that the team's not guaranteed of making every race anyway. A lot of it will probably depend on his sponsorship and if it requires him to always make an effort. I don't know what he gets from All Sport but I imagine it's not much.

I could see him putting someone in the All-Star Race Open next weekend just because everyone races and everyone gets money.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Flyin Ryan

It's not. But NASCAR and most every other sport (even golf) had to pay lip service to the whole "drugs in sports" debate that baseball had created in the last 5 years and come up with at least a token policy. Baseball went before a congressional inquiry (why? other than ego I don't know, but they did) and were made to look foolish and no other sports wants to have to deal with that.

with the recent suspension of Manny, they were even talking about Mayfield during a baseball game on ESPN last night......comparing it, somehow. the drugs in sports debate in the states have been mostly about baseball (a bit on Lance, i mean cycling ) and performance inhancing, not "fun" use.

but what could a NASCAR driver gain from recreational drug use?
nascar sees it as a safety issue....although, i know for a fact that Curtis Turner drove a few (if not most of his races) either with a hangover or still drunk....he was banned for life, but for other reasons and also had the right to appeal. Mayfield and others had/will have no appeal.

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

with the recent suspension of Manny, they were even talking about Mayfield during a baseball game on ESPN last night......comparing it, somehow. the drugs in sports debate in the states have been mostly about baseball (a bit on Lance, i mean cycling ) and performance inhancing, not "fun" use.

but what could a NASCAR driver gain from recreational drug use?
nascar sees it as a safety issue....although, i know for a fact that Curtis Turner drove a few (if not most of his races) either with a hangover or still drunk....he was banned for life, but for other reasons and also had the right to appeal. Mayfield and others had/will have no appeal.

Couldn't they appeal to ACCUS? A person did a couple years for a sporting issue and actually won (which had to make NASCAR mad).

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar...ory?id=4157540

Here's NASCAR drug program testing lab commenting on it. He failed a 2nd test as well. The end of the article says there's no appeal, although if Mayfield wanted I think he could appeal to ACCUS.

"What we have is a clear violation of policy," David Black said, according to the newspaper. "In my many years of experience, I have never seen a violation like this due to the combination of over-the-counter or prescription products."

Black, whose Tennessee-based Aegis Labs runs NASCAR's drug-testing program, wouldn't divulge what drug Mayfield tested positive for, only saying it was "a drug of concern," the report said.

Here's the why for the drug testing policy from another ESPN column.

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar...yan&id=4154995

We don't know what banned substance Mayfield took. We know that it wasn't alcohol, which is on the league's banned substance list during race weekends once it reaches a certain blood-alcohol level. And few are buying into the hot garage rumor that he'd produced the positive with allergy medicine (Dr. David Black, NASCAR's drug liaison, told ESPN.com's David Newton that Claritin could theoretically be a trigger, but that the threshold was extremely high). Even fewer are showing faith in the "he mixed together a bunch of over-the-counter stuff to make a homemade remedy" theory.

In the end, what it was doesn't really matter. Fertility drugs, cough syrup, cocaine … whatever. If the league determines that someone is ingesting a substance that will impair his ability to drive a 3,400-pound mechanical beast at 190 mph, no matter how slight that impairment might be, he has no business being on the racetrack. Ever.

Zero tolerance.

Under the "reasonable suspicion" policy of the past, drivers such as Tyler Walker, Shane Hmiel and Kevin Grubb (who died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on Wednesday) were suspended after they had clearly been using hard drugs during the same period of their lives when they were participating in NASCAR races. Then 14 months ago, suspended driver Aaron Fike admitted to ESPN The Magazine -- more specifically, he admitted to me -- that he'd used heroin on the same days that he'd been behind the wheel of a NASCAR Truck Series ride.

In an instant, NASCAR was being attacked from all angles -- media, drivers and drug-testing experts -- for the gaping holes in its two-decades-old zero tolerance substance abuse policy. That criticism was absolutely justified. Terms such as "reasonable suspicion" and "we can test anyone at anytime" were groundbreaking when they were introduced in 1988, but in today's more advanced OxyContin and meth-fueled age, the effectiveness of the rarely updated policy had all but vanished. Within days NASCAR chairman Brian France formed a team to investigate the problem. Five months later he announced the new random drug-testing policy that went into effect this season.

[fieldodreams79]

no matter who does what, NASCAR is NASCAR and will always be.....stubborn, unrelenting and always open to their interpretation.
it's their way or the highway.
period.

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

no matter who does what, NASCAR is NASCAR and will always be.....stubborn, unrelenting and always open to their interpretation.
it's their way or the highway.
period.

As is the head of every single racing series I've followed in my lifetime. Racing is a sport full of egos, power grabs, and politics.

Now:

Who will replace the suspended Jeremy Mayfield? That's the question on everybody's mind after Tony Furr, crew chief of the #41 Jeremy Mayfield Motorsports entry, rescinded earlier comments to FOXSports.com that J.J. Yeley was tabbed for the position. Speaking on behalf of the team, Shana Mayfield said no decision has been made but Yeley is on the short list. Mayfield was suspended indefinitely from NASCAR on Saturday after violating the sanctioning body's substance abuse policy. The team is expected to name an owner of record shortly, as Mayfield is not allowed to be owner of record during his suspension.

From Fox Sports.

[FIRE]

Why is Mayfield not allowed to be an owner? Is he a danger for other people when he walks in the infield?

[HughGJohnson]

Flyin Ryan is right about other sports not wanting to deal with bad PR. However, maybe, just maybe they also think it's a bad idea for a driver to be high or stoned while driving 200 MPH with 4 cars within 3 feet of his. They might even be more nervous now that they know the cars can still fly. Now that would really be bad PR...

[FIRE]

NASCAR doping/drugs policy is a joke.

[fieldodreams79]

most of nascar's policies are humourous.



week old news but....
JJ Yeley will drive the #41

[MJ_N_09]

BIG NEWS!!!!!!

Jeremy Mayfield has reportedly WON the court case.

[broadrun96]

He did not WIN, anything significant. He has an injunction to prevent NASCAR from acting on their suspension until a court case be assembled and argued before a judge. If he can prove he did not fail the drug test, which from some reports I've seen is close to impossible, then he will be allowed to race. But if NASCAR gets even a piece of his drug test backed up it's over for him, and may be permanently over for his racing and car owner career. Everybody in his hometown should welcome him back to bag at the grocery store for a while cause I doubt he will win anything.

[MJ_N_09]

Although at the track, Mayfield was unable to bring his team to Daytona due to major financial constrictions. Also he asked 4 teams if he could drive for them; they all said no.

Was it worth fighting?