Is it all over for Jeremy Mayfield? NASCAR files damning documents in court..But Mayfield is fighting back

  
Jeremy Mayfield: reeling after Wednesday's court filings (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   The strange case of Jeremy Mayfield took more bizarre twists -- sordid, even -- Wednesday, perhaps marking the end of the line for Mayfield's legal challenge against NASCAR's suspension for violating the stock car racing sanctioning body's substance abuse policies.
   NASCAR told the federal court in Charlotte that a drug test of Mayfield last week showed positive for methamphetamine.  And NASCAR also included an affidavit from Mayfield's stepmother in which she says she saw him using meth several times.
   However Mayfield's attorneys say that another drug test Mayfield had taken by an independent lab last week the same day as the NASCAR test came back negative. Mayfield says he's taken numerous such independent drug tests since his May suspension by NASCAR and he says each test came out negative.
   After remaining silent on the issue for several weeks, Mayfield is finally speaking out, and in a Wednesday night interview on Sirius radio, Mayfield conceded his NASCAR career is probably over:
   "I'm not worried about continuing my career because we all know what happens when you buck the system and you go back and try to race again.
   "It's not going to work out for me, for whatever reason, that we all know.
   "My deal now is I can't afford to pay people to work on race cars when we don't have the money to do that.
   "We're putting all of our resources, everything we got now, into fighting this to the end.
  
"I'm fighting it to the end, whatever I've got to do.
   "It's just like if somebody accuses you, 'Hey, man, you're going to jail.' For what reason they don't tell you.
   "They send you to jail, and you've got to explain later how you're going to get out.
   "You're not going to do that, you're not going to take the fall for somebody else.
   "You're going to stand up and be a man about it and fight for what's right, and that's what I've got to do.
   "I feel like I was definitely targeted -- they thought a good example for their drug policy. I'd go away for thirty days or whatever and come back, and drive again.
   "But nobody in their right mind would do that -- that's when you got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything.
   "And the deal with me -- remember 'policy' that Brian (France, NASCAR CEO) talks about all the time? If they got me, then none of their stars would ever have to go down for a positive drug test…which Brian said the other day they have all the time: positive drug tests.
   "If it's a 'zero tolerance' on their policy, then how do you have a bunch of positive drug tests?
   "Why was mine the only one positive that was going to have to be used for an example?"
   Mayfield described his crucial July 6th testing – a NASCAR supervised test, and two other tests by Mayfield at separate independent labs.
   "I had a test done before their test, and I had a test done 30 or 35 minutes after their test that got different results than what they're mentioning," Mayfield said. "We'll hear more about that tomorrow (Thursday), more detail."
   Mayfield said he's been getting regular personal drug tests numerous times since his May suspension: "about every three or four days I go get a drug test.
   "I'll say in the next couple weeks I'll probably have up to 15 or 16 different tests that show clean…and the only two that show positive are the ones that come from (Dr.) David Black (NASCAR's drug expert)"
   "It's just a bad deal all the way around for everybody involved…and stuff just keeps popping up, one thing after another.
   "It'll all come out and at the end we'll all know.
  "I think a lot of you guys I've known the past few years know for sure without a shadow of doubt there's nothing wrong here, nothing going on.
   "And they (NASCAR) have a hard time admitting when they're wrong.
   "We know that -- and it's just part of the battle we're going to have to fight."
   Mayfield revealed he has had a film crew following him around to document things. "We've had a camera crew with us 24/7."
   And he says it has been a traumatic two months: "Every day, all day long, this is what we deal with.
   "But I can tell you this: I'm not going to lay down.
   "I'm going to stand up for what's right. That's the way I am and who I am.
   "They can try to throw every little tactical thing they can throw at me…but I can promise you I'm not going down.
   "I want the world to know that.
   "What bothers me more than anything is how wrong -- and the lie you have to read every day on the internet…and see how wrong this whole situation is.
   "I haven't said anything for awhile. I've been real quiet, letting them do their own deal.
   "And I just can't take it no more, and I need to tell the truth. I need to let everybody know that what's right is right and what's wrong is wrong.
   "It's time to tell it; it's time for the world to know."