No legal action filed Friday in Jeremy Mayfield case
CONCORD, N.C. – Attorney Bill Diehl says it will be next week before he and driver/owner Jeremy Mayfield reveal what action they might take against NASCAR over the sanctioning body's suspension of Mayfield following a positive drug test taken May 1.
“You’ll find out more what [we are] going to do next week – nothing is going to happen today,” Diehl said late Friday afternoon. “Not that we haven’t been working today. … We are going through this methodically, and we’re doing a lot of things, and nothing is going to happen today.”
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.
On Thursday, Mayfield and his attorneys met with NASCAR officials and attorneys for about an hour with no resolution.
Mayfield is the first 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. Aegis Laboratories, headed by Dr. David Black, a toxicologist, conducts the testing.
No driver has been successful at legally challenging a NASCAR positive drug test.
J.J. Yeley, who is driving for Mayfield Motorsports during Mayfield’s absence, failed to qualify for the Coca-Cola 600 this weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Diehl said Thursday that Mayfield’s reputation had been harmed. The 39-year-old Mayfield is a five-time race winner and a two-time participant in the Chase For The Sprint Cup. He had qualified for five of the first 11 races this year.
“Have you ever heard of damage to reputation being undone?” Diehl said. “I never have.”
