Why did it take NASCAR more than two weeks to give Jeremy Mayfield the results of his drug test?

  
The Jeremy Mayfield debate: What next? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   CONCORD, N.C.
   There are more than a few troubling aspects of the Jeremy Mayfield-NASCAR debate over the handling of his routine, random drug test at Richmond International Raceway May 1st or 2nd.
   And Bill Diehl, the well-known trial lawyer that Mayfield has hired to defend him, has a reputation of digging into every aspect of an issue, when defending a client. Which could well mean that every part of NASCAR's drug testing program – perhaps even going back to its origins with Tim Richmond in 1987 and 1988, certainly including the Ron Hornaday testosterone cream controversy last fall – and every NASCAR drug test could be ripe for public review…and every aspect of known drug use, legal and otherwise.
   How far NASCAR executives might want to let Diehl go down that road is ripe for debate now, considering Diehl's history of no-holds-barred lawyering.
   Diehl might not have won every case, but he has certainly taken a chunk out of the winners in the legal process.
   The Diehl dynamic aside, the NASCAR-Mayfield situation has a number of questions.
   First, the NASCAR-released time line of who knew what when, from the day of the test until the following Saturday, more than a week later, when NASCAR announced it was suspending Mayfield for 'violating' its substance abuse policies. NASCAR has changed the official time line it first released. Why?
   Second, the continuing debate over what specific drug NASCAR's doctors discovered in that test. NASCAR won't say; Mayfield won't say. Why?
   Mayfield said Saturday that NASCAR hadn't told him what it found that it didn't like; NASCAR's drug czar, Dr. Black, insisted he had told Mayfield several times.
   Mayfield says the 'positive' was the result of an interaction between a legally prescribed drug he was taking and Claritin D (which has pseudoephedrine, a decongestant). Dr. Black says no way. That issue has to have a clear-cut pharmaceutical answer.
   However, most curious, perhaps, is that Mayfield and Diehl apparently just a few days ago received a copy of the specific results of that Richmond drug test. The paperwork itself.
   Why did NASCAR wait so long to give Mayfield that paperwork? Was NASCAR trying to hide something?
   Given Mayfield's strong protestations, NASCAR's 'no tolerance' stance looks shaky at the moment, as does NASCAR's 'no appeal' stance.
   Perhaps NASCAR and Diehl may need to have Mayfield undergo another drug test.
   Unfortunately for the sport, this whole debate may well get uglier before it gets any better.