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.