Fri Jun 26, 2009 10:50 am EDT
Mayfield continues defense as other drivers support drug policy
In the latest turn to the ongoing Jeremy Mayfield saga, the excommunicated driver has denied ever taking methamphetamines, has no idea how he could have failed the random drug test in May, and has said his suspension from NASCAR has completely devastated his driving career.
Mayfield's statements came in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, according to AP reports. He has been suspended for more than a month following the failure of a random drug test at Richmond International Raceway.
"I have never taken methamphetamines in my life, and when accused of taking them I immediately volunteered to give another urine sample," Mayfield said.
NASCAR's refusal to release the name of the drug that Mayfield was charged with using, which has turned the entire case into a lesson in pharmacoogy and guessowrk. While outsiders try to guess what might have been in Mayfield's bloodstream, experts for both sides are trying to defend or tear down the validity of the test.
But in response to Mayfield's affidavit, NASCAR offered up some expert testimony of its own, so to speak, with affidavits from Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Robby Gordon. All three affidavits were roughly identical, which is standard procedure, and all three ended with the same important elements:
5. I make my livelihood by racing in NASCAR events. Racing is my life and career. However I am not willing to put my life at risk driving a racecar on a NASCAR track with drivers testing positive for drugs that diminish their capacity to drive a racecar. I support NASCAR's Substance Abuse Policy and depend on NASCAR to prohibit drivers who don't abide by the policy from racing.
6. If drivers are on the track in violation of NASCAR's Substance Abuse Policy, it presents serious questions as to whether or not it makes sense for me to put my life at risk.
Mayfield has not driven full-time since 2006, when he was fired from Evernham Motorsports. Mayfield slapped together a race team this season and qualified for several races. But the suspension has caused sponsors to abandon the No. 41 team, Mayfield said in his affidavit, and he and his wife have been forced to borrow money to pay for basic expenses.
"I do not understand how or why this is happening to me or my family," Mayfield said in the affidavit. "I have always anticipated that I would be able to race for another ten years, but I believe my career will be effectively over if I am forced to sit out the rest of this season. I am afraid that I will have to sell my race team, and I know of no other way to make a living except as a professional race car driver."
Without taking a side either way in this, I sure hope it gets resolved definitively, since this is beyond ugly and veering deep into the tragic.
Suspended driver Mayfield denies taking drugs [AP via Yahoo! Sports]
NASCAR submits affidavits [NASCAR Nuts n' Bolts]
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73 Comments
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Whether he's guilty or not his career in NASCAR is done. Sad no matter how you look at it.
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1) would you like fries with that?
2)Get a hammer and nails and do some real work.
3) Lemonade stand
4)phone sex line.
5)panhandling at the bus station.
6) Stableboy
7) stand by the overpass sellin newspapers
anyone else have some tips for Jeremy? lets make a nice list and let Jay send it to him.
Better yet Jay we could have a contest, whoever finds Jeremy a job first gets some sorta crappy prize like that JG stuff you gave away.
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1) buy a lawnmower and race around someone's yard.
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'bout par for ASSCAR.
Aint nobody on this planet will ever convince me if it had been a Hendrick drver we would have ever heard about it especially Jimmy and Jeffy.
ASSCAR is so full of sheeaaaaat their "Full of Crap" meter is pegged. They aint got an ounce of credibility.
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I'd like to see him ram it up ASSCAR's ass sideways. Look at their record from a purely managment point of view. Allowed an Animal House environment in Busch and allowed someone to sue over bull sheeeaaat. flying an aircraft without proper maintenance or record keeping, claiming they didn't know Nationwide was going to buy out Busch or that Sprint was taking over Nextel......................Brian France and his staff couldn't manage the Publics Works Department for the city of Two Egg, Florida. Name me one professional sport that is owned by a private indivdual. One. The sooner the France family is stripped of ownership and Hendrick is sent to jail the better off ASSCAR will be.
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1) Mayfield suspended for failure of NASCAR's drug policy.
2) He says. " Uh-uh...no i didn't
3) NASCAR says " o yes you did!"
4) Mayfield says " I'll sue!"
5) NASCAR says " So will we!"
6) Drivers say " We don't feel safe with a Doper on the track!"
7) Mayfield says " Uh uh...no i didn't"
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The facts as I/we know them seems to indicate that Jeremy may have a case for being accused unjustly and that may be enough to at least allow him to continue racing until this is resolved. Now of course he would have to be tested prior to every race and that in itself will pose problems for both sides. Does NASCAR allow an impartial testing lab to conduct the tests and will Jeremy agree to submit to regular tests considering the outcome of the first.
NASCAR or any business has the right (well should have the right) to operate it's business as it see fit. Jeremy knew the drug policy was in place and should have informed NASCAR and the drug testing lab he was taking medication, whether that infringes on his personal right to privacy or not. That's the rules he agreed to by submitting an entry form to race. Common sense sometimes needs to outweigh so called "rights".
The drivers fears of having Jeremy on the track can certainly be alleviated with proper monitoring so hopefully the judge rules on the facts of the case and not on pressure tactics backed by hollow threats.
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You'un think Jeffy or Jimmy know anything else? Neither of them two turds could do my job one damned bit. Neither have college eduations. Neither served. Both know more about embroidery than sitting in a tree stand, working a trolling motor from a pole seat on a 20 foot Ranger flipping a Carolina rig, working a pile row in a watermelon field, walking behind a spotted pointer in the sandhills of Florida or red lands of S. AL hunting quail or pheasants in Nebraska, running an engine lathe or a Bridgeport or a CNC lathe or mill, or shoveling soy beans in the bottom of a graain silo in the middle of the summer in 130 temps...................................
All jobs and thngs I did working my way through college to a senior project engineer. Jimmy and Jeffy wouldn't make a dimple on my ass. I knowd damned well I could stay up with them on the track and they can't do my job so I am a better man. And being better is thinking you'un is better and thinking is half the game.
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Bwahahahahahahaha, wahahahahaha, hohohohohohohohoh, rotflmao. The only thing they'll man up to is a buck and a car they know will win. Neither one has paid a single due.
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Blahhhhhh!!! Please pumpy, leave your sexual fantasies and perversions out of your comments, this is a family blog.
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So you are an Obama supporter. I knew it!! The great conservative spewing cobra is advocating socialism. Taking private businesses away from individuals and turning them over to who? The government, as in the GM?
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