NASCAR drug, kicking and screaming, into new policy

NASCAR took one of its rare tentative steps into the 21st century last week. Some would argue that they were drug kicking and screaming into the current day by the shocking allegations made in the aftermath of the Aaron Fike drug debacle. After Fike and his girlfriend were arrested for shooting heroin in a parked car at a Cincinnati amusement park, he was forced to admit he had a problem and was an addict. He’d go on to admit at the heights of his addiction he’d even shot heroin on the same days he drove in the Craftsman Truck Series.

That’s not good.

While some see drug use as a victimless personal crime, it’s a lot different when a user is sitting at home with Foghat cranked up on the stereo than when he is at the wheel of two tons of racecar hurtling along well in excess of 100 mph in tight quarters with other competitors. An impaired driver’s reduced awareness, reflexes and judgement could easily lead to a savage wreck that could badly hurt or even kill a fellow driver. Yes, it is essential to safety that no impaired drivers be allowed to compete in motorsports.

What’s more, clinical studies have proven that users of even the more benign sorts of drugs like marijuana continue to exhibit reduced reaction times and impaired judgment long after the high wears off. The same goes for alcohol. While a person’s blood alcohol content might read 0.00 the day after a bender, his motor and mental skills remain reduced. That’s why airline pilots subscribe to a rule, “24 hours from bottle to throttle.”

NASCAR’s previous policy was to test a driver for drugs based on “reasonable suspicion.” The word “suspicion” is clearly defined but “reasonable” was one of those modifiers NASCAR allowed itself as to do whatever it pleased, whenever it pleased, while still claiming it was adhering to its somewhat nebulous rulebook. The wording and practice of the old rule left many suspicious that NASCAR was using its policy to protect the anointed and persecute those it didn’t care for. That surely seemed to be the case with the first known individual NASCAR chose to drug test, the late Tim Richmond.

Before Richmond was allowed to compete in the 1988 Busch Clash, he was made to submit to a urine test at NASCAR’s insistence. They later announced Richmond’s test had come back positive, destroying his career and badly damaging his reputation. Faced with a lawsuit, NASCAR was forced to admit the substance detected in Richmond’s urine was nothing more dangerous than an over-the-counter cold remedy widely rumored to have been Nyquil.

But Richmond’s nightmare wasn’t over. He filed a lawsuit demanding reinstatement and compensation for his humiliation. NASCAR got a friendly judge to rule that as part of the lawsuit, Richmond and his doctors would have to turn over all medical records, a gross invasion of privacy no reasonable jurist would uphold today. Richmond could not do that. His medical records contained information that he’d been diagnosed with AIDS. In that era, an AIDS diagnosis was like being diagnosed with leprosy in the Middle Ages. An infected individual would become a social pariah, shunned by most, and perhaps even tossed out of his neighborhood for fear he might sneeze on the sidewalk and infect others. In that less-enlightened time, it was thought the only way a man could get AIDS was through homosexual acts or needle-drug use. We now know better. Tim was terrified of needles and could never have injected himself. He contracted AIDS through heterosexual activity.

NASCAR’ new policy is a lot better. Drivers, crew members and officials in NASCAR’s top three touring series (Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck) will be tested prior to the 2009 season and all team owners must certify that every team employee issued a NASCAR license has been drug tested by an approved facility prior to the start of the season. Further, at each event two drivers from each series, as well of a number of team members and NASCAR officials, will be randomly selected by computer to be tested by a NASCAR-selected laboratory on track premises. Failing to show up as scheduled for the test or refusing to take it will count the same as failing the test. Any person who fails the test will be immediately suspended until he or she meets criteria that will be based on the substances found in his system and medical clearance. A third failed test will result in a lifetime ban with no chance at reinstatement. Truthfully, for any driver who fails even one test, his career would effectively be over in today’s sponsor-driven sport.

I’m one of NASCAR’s harsher critics but I will give them credit when credit is due. This new policy is a step in the right direction. Hooray NASCAR! I never really understood that “reasonable suspicion” deal, though it was explained to me that in the tight-packed NASCAR garage areas there were few secrets, and if any member of the “family” started developing a problem word would be out in no time. But it seemed sometimes NASCAR was waiting for a driver to emerge from his coach carrying a two foot-high purple Plexiglas bong wearing a ’72 Grateful Dead European Tour t-shirt and downing a pack of double-stuff Oreos. Yes, some drivers’ bizarre and hysterical behavior at times seemed a clear indication that they might be using meth or caught in ‘roid rage. But then again, some folks need drugs to get mean, irrational and stupid. Others are just born that way.

But once again, NASCAR just had to leave itself a whole lot of wiggle room. The sanctioning body decided not to release a list of the banned substances it will be testing for. WTF, NASCAR?! Are you serious? How can you tell an individual that they are subject to random testing that could end with them being banned from the sport and cost them their livelihood while not even telling them what substances they must avoid?

Logic indicates that any so-called recreational drugs that are illegal (and I use the term “recreational” loosely. I’m from that era and I saw too many folks drug use go from “recreational” to “wreck-creational”). The most problematic of those drugs is pot. A person can take a few hits off the old brass pipe and for approximately 30 days he’s going to fail a pee test. Another person might go on a night-long heroin jag that would leave Keith Richards in awe and 24 hours later he’s going to pee clean.

Hair testing is actually far more conclusive. Drug use remains evident in a strand of hair from the time it emerges from the scalp to the time it ends up on the barber shop floor.

In this day and age it seems clear that NASCAR will also be checking for steroids and human growth hormones — substances used at first in weightlifting and body building circles to help competitors bulk up quickly. Those same drugs would later cause scandals in the Olympics, the NFL and Major League Baseball.

Some would argue such drugs would not give a driver in even reasonable physical condition a decided advantage. But in the case of guys on the pit crew, the ability to lift heavy weights easier, run faster and endure longer under harsh physical conditions could indeed give them an advantage on pit road, where success or failure is measured in hundredths of a second. Long gone are the days when Junior Johnson would lift the jack in one hand and his prodigious gut with the other to go over the wall and pit one of his own cars.

That leads to another problem. Unscrupulous medical professionals have formed a cottage industry developing new substances that give the same advantage as banned substances but in forms that haven’t been banned or aren’t tested for. There seems to be a new one every month and the International Olympic Committee has been left scrambling trying to identify and ban them. So, yes, NASCAR needs the same leeway in adding to the banned substance list constantly.

But NASCAR says it has the right to discipline a member for “abuse” of any substance. So what do those substances include? Energy drinks and these new “five-hour energy” potions, some of which appear as sponsors on the actual racecars, could be seen as an individual trying to gain an edge. So if a guy has pumped down a four-pack of Red Bull prior to a race to get amped up, is he going to be considered a violator? How about drugs that are clearly used to get high but which haven’t been banned. One such substance that has been in the headlines lately is Salvia, a so-called “legal” pot with mildly hallucinogenic properties that can be bought legally on the Internet in 48 states. I have no idea how long Salvia stays in a user’s system but it isn’t illegal. Will detection of Salvia earn a fellow a suspension?

Then there are legal substances that have proven to be harmful if taken immoderately. Since NASCAR says it can ban anyone for abusing any substance without defining abuse, will it test for liver enzymes to determine when a person might be developing a drinking problem? (And trust me, that is rampant in our sport, from Brian France right down to the catchcan men.) How many cups of coffee a day constitute abuse? How about cigarettes? Is a nicotine concentration in the blood high enough to indicate a guy is smoking more than two packs a day going to be a problem? Shamefully, I’m addicted to tobacco myself, but I know it’s not good for me. And if NASCAR were to decide to test and ban media members with high cholesterol indicating abuse of red meat, Budweiser and french fries, the crowd in the press box is going to thin dramatically (pun intended).

I can think of no other sport that does not have a detailed list of banned substances in this day and age. Why must NASCAR play games? Like it or not, the mainstream media and viewing public still see stock car racing as a backwoods, buck-toothed, banjo playing cousin of “real” stick and ball sports. And once again NASCAR is handing them the ammunition while pointing frantically at its own feet.

NASCAR was close to getting this one right, after all this time. Instead, it blew it on fourth and inches from the goal line.

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