Reinstated NASCAR driver/owner Jeremy Mayfield will not race this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway as part of an oral agreement with the U.S. Court of Appeals, Mayfield lawyer John Buric said Thursday morning.

Mayfield obtained an injunction July 1 from U.S. District Court in Charlotte to lift a suspension for a failed drug test that NASCAR says was positive for methamphetamines. NASCAR asked the appeals court in Richmond, Va., Wednesday to immediately lift the injunction so it can suspend Mayfield until there is a hearing on the appeal.

Buric said that since Mayfield hadn’t found sponsorship to race this week, he agreed to not go to Chicagoland – where practice starts this afternoon for the race Saturday – so he can have more time to respond to NASCAR’s request to have the injunction lifted. If he was still entertaining thoughts of going to Chicagoland, Mayfield would have had to respond to NASCAR’s motion by today. Now he has until next Wednesday.

“He couldn’t get the sponsorships anyway to race,” Buric said. “We agreed with NASCAR and reported to the court that he would not be racing this weekend, taking away the urgency of their motion, so we could properly brief it. … If you listen to the folks in the garages and you listen to the owners and you listen to the other drivers, he is a pariah at this point, and nobody is touching him right now.

SceneDaily