Why should NASCAR announce substances in test results?
Kenny Bruce
Kenny Bruce is a three-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association's George Cunningham Writer of the Year Award. He joined Street & Smith's Sports Group in 2001.
CONCORD, N.C. – OK, so I’ve been mulling it over, trying to understand why some folks say NASCAR needs to publicize the specific drug or drugs that got Jeremy Mayfield indefinitely suspended.
And I’ve got to be honest. I’m hitting a roadblock.
Some of the folks who think NASCAR should be the one to “come clean” are fellow media members, several others are licensed participants in the sport. I respect all of them. I just don’t agree with them.
What could possibly be gained by releasing the specific information? Mayfield’s career has already been damaged, and if it’s up to anyone to make additional information public knowledge, it should be Mayfield.
If he indeed was suspended for something as innocent as mixing prescription and over-the-counter medications, as he claims, what does he have to lose by releasing the specific names of those medications?
Mayfield, owner and driver of Mayfield Motorsports, is one of six licensed members of the NASCAR community to be suspended this year under the sanctioning body’s revised drug testing policy. It’s worth noting that there was no such public outcry when NASCAR announced that Paul Chodora, John Boyd, Richard Gray, Tony Martin and Ben Williams had been indefinitely suspended. Where was the outrage then? Where was the concern? No one, to my knowledge, demanded that NASCAR identify the specific substances in each of those cases.
NASCAR adopted the substance-abuse policy, the drivers and everyone else applying for a NASCAR license agreed to abide by it, and, according to the test results, Mayfield is just one of the latest to violate the policy.
As a result, NASCAR took action. Not because of rumors. Not because of innuendo.
NASCAR maintains the right to “publish the results of any test or tests conducted ....” Thus far, officials with the sanctioning body have declined to do so. I would think those who have been found in violation of the policy would be grateful for that.
