NASCAR's Drug Policy Is a Joke

On Saturday night just before the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Daytona NASCAR officials notified Penske Racing and driver A.J. Allmendinger that Allmendinger was temporarily suspended as he failed a drug test. The result was that Penske Nationwide Series driver Sam Hornish Jr. had to be flown in from Charlotte and barely made it to the track in time to race. Penske and Allmendinger have requested that NASCAR test the driver’s B sample, as it was the A sample that came up positive and an official word on the length of Allmendinger’s suspension will come after the results of that test. 

I’ve never liked NASCAR’s drug testing system. Here’s why … one report that I read said that a positive test in NASCAR could literally be anything from a positive test for hard drugs such as heroin to a positive test for a sleeping pill. So, if Allmendinger needed a little help sleeping at night it could have resulted in his banishment from NASCAR. I also have an issue with the length of NASCAR suspensions for failing drug tests. NASCAR usually gives the driver and indefinite suspension and the process for returning from a drug suspension in NASCAR is way harder than most professional sports … many driver’s careers are ruined and never make it back. A few years ago NASCAR suspended driver Jeremy Mayfield for a positive drug tests in which the driver was caught using meth. Now, certainly that warranted a punishment, but Mayfield has essentially been given a lifetime ban from the sport, which is wrong.

Another issue with NASCAR’s drug testing policy is that they won’t announce what the driver tested positive for, so we literally have no clue how serious Allmendinger’s infraction was. The driver isn’t telling either, but he seems dumbfounded by the result.

NASCAR really needs to fix some things about their drug policy, because right now it’s too vague, too strict and nobody ever knows what the driver tested positive for.