July 01, 2009
Jeremy Mayfield Wins Injunction; Can Race at Daytona
U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen granted Jeremy Mayfield's request for a preliminary injunction today that will allow Mayfield to race at Daytona even though he tested positive for methamphetamines and used Adderall without informing NASCAR as he was required to do. In granting the injunction Judge Mullen said, "The harm to Mayfield substantially outweighs harm to NASCAR." As Jeff Gluck from scenedaily.com said on Twitter, it seems to me that there's a safety issue here when it comes to a driver who may have used illegal drugs that should outweigh everything. If it had been proven today that the three times that Mayfield tested positive for meth from two different drug labs were all false positives and that he hadn't in fact ever used meth, and that there was some misunderstanding about the Adderall, then let him race. But the judge didn't rule on whether the tests, testing process or anything else was valid. It seems to me that the harm to NASCAR and it's competitors via the potential of having a driver on the track who may have used meth is greater than the harm to Mayfield in him not being able to race.
Mayfield said,
“The main thing is to be able to go back and be able to do that. The truth came out, and now I can go back and say we’re clear of all this. I cleared my name, and now we can go racing again. That means more to me than anything.”
I'd like to know just exactly how Mayfield thinks he cleared his name. It seems to me he's still an accused meth user since there are multiple positive drug tests that show he used meth that weren't discredited today. And the fact of the matter is that even if it's shown that NASCAR's drug testing policy is flawed that doesn't mean that Mayfield didn't use meth. Nor does it mean that he's in the clear when it comes to the Adderall either.
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Posted by silverdsl at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)
Strong Words From NASCAR's Jim Hunter About Mike Mulhern
More than once I've questioned in this space how Mike Hulhern, who covered NASCAR for years for the Winston Salem Journal and is now an independent blogger, has been able to get away with publishing stories containing rumors and speculation with very little sourcing or accuracy. While a lot of fans including myself almost immediately dismiss any rumor that comes from Mulhern, there are just as many fans who feel that he's a legitimate source of news and information - scary.Mulhern recently wrote a story on his website that stated that the situation in the Truck Series is so dire that NASCAR may fold the series after this season, a story which apparently doesn't have any truth to it according to Jim Hunter, NASCAR's Vice President of Communications, who had strong words about Mulhern, "There's no truth to it whatsoever," Hunter said.
"It's total B.S. The demise of the truck series is the figment of one person's imagination. (Mulhern) has a history of fabricating false stories and this is another example of it. We're very aware that (the Camping World Truck Series) is affected the hardest during this economic recession. We're currently looking at options. We've never given up on a series and we're not going to start now."
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Posted by silverdsl at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)