Monticello — NASCAR doesn't take it lightly when someone rains on their circus.

And Jeremy Mayfield has done just that. Even though he may not win the

war, he has won a major battle against image-conscious NASCAR.

Mayfield is a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver again after U.S. District Court

Judge Graham Mullen granted Mayfield's motion last Wednesday for a

preliminary injunction to force the sanctioning body to lift his indefinite

suspension for a test that NASCAR says was positive for methamphetamines.

After nearly two hours of testimony by NASCAR and Mayfield attorneys,

Mullen found that the harm Mayfield is suffering by not driving is more than

the harm to NASCAR to conduct a safe race and that Mayfield has a likelihood

of success on the merits of his case.

One of the issues Judge Mullen was concerned about was the limitation on

the discretion NASCAR had in determining what violates its Substance Abuse

Policy.

At issue, in a way, was NASCAR's power. The Substance Abuse Policy, some

would suggest, is over the top, in not having a list of banned substances

and that makes it too open-ended. Mayfield's lawyer argued that in theory

NASCAR could state that drinking too much Coca-Cola or coffee or orange

juice could violate the policy.

NASCAR does not have a list of banned substances like other professional

sports leagues.

It will be interesting to see what new rules NASCAR puts in place, and

remember, this is just an injunction, there's still a whole court case to

settle, so this isn't over.

Mayfield, who must comply with any requests from NASCAR to drug-test

him, said that he planned to be racing as soon as he could get a car ready.

He was not in Daytona for this past weekend's race, but you can bet

NASCAR has ways of making it hard on him and his team if he continues to try

to make future races.