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Getting tough on drugs

DOVER, Del. – A valued mentor once shared a prophetic philosophy with me many years ago: "It's the easiest thing for a columnist to criticize, but the hardest thing is to give credit where it's due and tell someone, 'Good job.' "

While admittedly I've been one of its biggest critics, today I must say to NASCAR, "Good job."

After overseeing one of the weakest, almost laughable "testing" programs for illegal substance use of any major sport, Brian France and co. finally put some significant teeth into their bite.

Saturday at Dover International Speedway, NASCAR officials announced a broad-reaching policy that requires mandatory annual testing – starting prior to next season's Daytona 500 – for illegal substance use for all drivers, crew members and sanctioning body officials in Sprint Cup, as well as the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck series.

In addition, regular random drug testing – including, for the first time ever, testing for steroid use – will take place throughout the season. NASCAR estimates it will test up to 14 drivers per series per weekend.

Lastly, all team owners will be responsible for – and must share records with NASCAR – having all company employees regularly tested for drug use.

"We have made a very good policy even better with the addition of random tests," France said in a statement. "NASCAR's policy has long given us the ability to test anyone, anywhere, at anytime. Random tests now provide us and the industry with additional information."

While the sanctioning body said it will not maintain a list of banned substances, per se, that's actually a good thing in the bigger picture. If you list only certain substances that are illegal, a smart attorney could make a case that a driver, crew member or official was not guilty for using a substance that may not have been listed – be it illegal or not.

"We believe that a list is restrictive," said Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR vice president for racing operations. "If you've seen with a lot of other leagues, the policy is constantly changing. We know that there's new drugs out there every day. By having a broad policy that doesn't list anything, we feel like we can test for any substance that may be abused, no different than our policy is today.

"It states right now in our policy that cough medicine could be abused if you're taking that too much and it's going to affect the safety on the racetrack. That won't change. We'll test for anything. Our experts are very familiar with prescriptions people may be taking and legitimate medications, but we will not have a list."

Use of any illegal drug or controlled substance remains due cause for immediate suspension, all the way up to a permanent lifetime ban from participation in the sport.

Use of legal medications, prescribed by a licensed physician, are still approved – unless NASCAR finds that a performance enhancement is derived from its use.

"If you take it the way the doctor ordered, things are fine," O'Donnell said. "If it's abused, that will obviously show up on a test."

NASCAR endured a significant amount of criticism this past April after former Craftsman Trucks Series driver Aaron Fike revealed that he had raced while under the influence of heroin. Had it not been for a suspicious cop who caught Fike and his girlfriend sleeping in their truck in a parking lot, I shudder to think that Fike would still be racing today, heroin continuing to course through his veins.

The immediate fallout after the Fike revelation included drivers like Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick and others making the startling announcements that NASCAR has never tested them for drugs in their entire careers.

Not even once. That's an abomination.

Even though Fike's admission caught NASCAR by surprise, France and other top-ranking officials still tried to tell anyone that would listen that it had the toughest drug policy in sports. In reality, it was more of a see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil reactionary program.

Now, instead of a three blind mice mentality, incidents like Fike's and Shane Hmiel's before that, have opened up NASCAR's eyes once and for all.

"We needed to do this. … It's the right thing to do," O'Donnell said. "We talked to a number of the competitors in the garage who obviously were for this as well. We just think it's the right program at the right time for us to put into place."

Coming from a guy who can be pretty critical at times, I have just one thing to say to describe this most recent turn of events:

Bravo.