Random Thoughts

If there's one thing I have no tolerance for it's a driver putting their fellow drivers at risk by being impaired on the track. Racing is a dangerous sport to begin with, and it's even more dangerous when a driver is racing under the influence of something that might effect their reaction time, cloud their mind or cause them to drive erratically. There's no excuse for using a drug on the banned list, even if it was a legal drug, and especially not during a race.

In a lot of ways it's astonishing that a young driver would throw the opportunity of a lifetime away, but on the other hand it's not all that surprising. The use of drugs, both casual and to the point to where they're abused, isn't unusual in society as a whole, then why not in Nascar? Some fans would like to believe that the drivers are different than the athletes in other sports in that they're much more squeakly-clean and less apt to get into trouble. But in reality Nascar doesn't know what kind of a substance abuse problem they actually have because drivers and others in the garage area aren't subject to regular, mandatory drug testing. I highly doubt that Walker and the drivers who have been suspended for drugs before him were the only ones in the garage area who have used drugs, they're just the only ones who have been caught by Nascar. Some individual teams do drug testing, much of it random, but the penalties for a positive test vary, and Nascar likely never finds out about those test results. And that's probably the way they like it. Nascar seems content to address the issue of substance abuse only when they're forced to.

What I'd like to know is whether there's going to be any increased scrutiny of BDR and the problems they've dealt with this season. Michael Waltrip Racing has been regularly ripped by fans and the media for all of their issues and problems this season, well why not BDR? After all, they're getting sued by one of their former drivers, they're involved with a possibly shady sponsor, one of their drivers and crew chiefs was just penalized for letting a driver without a Nascar liscense get behind the wheel of one of their trucks, and now another of their drivers just got suspended for testing positive for drugs. If MWR is thought to be a troubled organization than what's BDR? I've never really cared for the way that BDR does business, whether it's how they released Scott Wimmer, to the lousy cars they gave Michael Waltrip last season, to how they seemed to string Steve Park along last season in terms of a truck ride. While they can't be held responsible for Walker's decision to use drugs, it's just one more thing that makes me think that BDR has some internal issues they need to deal with.