Jeremy Mayfield meets with NASCAR; drug-test issues unresolved
NASCAR owner/driver Jeremy Mayfield has been indefinitely suspended by NASCAR for violating its substance abuse policy.
// David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
CONCORD, N.C. – Suspended driver/owner Jeremy Mayfield and his attorneys met with NASCAR Vice President of Operations Steve O’Donnell, Aegis Laboratories’ Dr. David Black and NASCAR attorneys for about an hour Thursday afternoon but did not come to a resolution of the issues over his positive drug test taken May 1.
Mayfield declined to comment, but his attorney Bill Diehl said “it was a cordial meeting” and indicated that as far as the next step, “you’ll probably know that tomorrow.”
“I’m not going to tell you what we’re going to do tomorrow,” Diehl said Thursday afternoon outside the NASCAR Research and Development Center.
Diehl said he was neither optmistic nor pessimistic that the case could be resolved without litigation: "I'm just hopeful [of a resoution]," he said.
"We had a pleasant exchange of information [today]," Diehl said. "We listened and they listened and now we’re going back to work.”
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Mayfield is still indefinitely suspended.
“I would agree that [the meeting today] was cordial,” Poston said. “[Diehl] just wants to get Jeremy back in the car and there’s a very well-defined process for that and he needs to meet with Dr. Black, who will prescribe a very specific program for him to follow. If he successfully completes that, he can seek reinstatement from NASCAR.”
NASCAR indefinitely suspended Mayfield on May 9 over the positive test. NASCAR Chairman Brian France indicated May 15 that an indefinite suspension such as the one Mayfield received is for a positive test of performance-enhancing drugs or illegal recreational drugs.
Mayfield denied May 16 that illegal drugs caused the positive test and suggested that a combination of a prescription drug and Claritin-D resulted in the positive test.
Mayfield is the first Sprint Cup driver to be suspended for violating NASCAR’s substance-abuse policy since Tim Richmond in 1988 and the first suspended since NASCAR instituted random drug-testing this season. Black’s laboratory conducts the testing.
No driver has been successful at legally challenging a NASCAR positive drug test.
“We’re contesting everything that happened,” said Diehl, who would not say what drug Mayfield tested positive for. “We hope that it’s a mistake. … Jeremy doesn’t believe he’s done anything that supports being suspended for use of drugs.”
Diehl said he would like to get Mayfield back on the track as soon as possible, but said there’s no timetable for the legal proceedings.
No matter what happens, Mayfield has been harmed, Diehl said.
“Have you ever heard of damage to reputation being undone?” Diehl said. “I never have.”
