Okay, so last week when NASCAR busted Jeremy Mayfield after he tested positive for a banned substance, my reaction was, "Huh." I mean, suspending Jeremy Mayfield isn't exactly shaking things up. It looked like yet another case of NASCAR making an example of a little fish (Mayfield's 45th in the points standings) to keep the big fish in line without hurting NASCAR's own bottom line.
But this is pretty disturbing: apparently NASCAR doesn't have a list of banned substances, at least not one that it will share with its drivers. Huh? I mean, it's only indefinite suspension we're talking about here. No reason to actually tell the drivers what's off limits.
Yes, I understand the headache of keeping ahead of the "Well you didn't say I couldn't!" people. NASCAR deals with those people in every aspect of the sport, though, and that doesn't keep them from setting standards. We're talking about an organization that has templates for how many quarters of a turn a spring can be wound, what angle a spoiler can sit and even what words a driver can and can't say on the radio. You're telling me they can't come up with a list of substances drivers shouldn't use?
"The substance is irrelevant. What's important is that a drug, under a positive test ... has been misused or abused," a NASCAR spokesperson told the AP. Okay, genius - WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? Are you talking about heroin, or pot? Cold medicine? Female hormones? Hell, there's caffeine in this Diet. Dr. Pepper I'm sucking down; that's a drug.
Frustrated NASCAR fans complain that the sport's been ruined by too many rules. The problem isn't too many rules - it's too many poorly reasoned, slapped-together rules that are inconsistently enforced. And this drug testing "policy" is a joke.
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