Harvick and Burton call for more drug testing in NASCAR
Quote selected text Published July 14th, 2007 in NASCAR News
Kevin Harvick questioned NASCAR’s drug testing policy after Craftsman Truck Series driver Aaron Fike was arrested and charged with possession of drugs last weekend.
“I believe that every driver and every national series should be drug tested a couple of times a year randomly regardless of who you are, what you are doing,” Harvick said on Friday at Chicagoland Speedway.
“We owe it to the sponsors and the fans to 100 percent know this is a clean environment. It would eliminate a lot of those problems of the younger guys that disrespect the sport and the system.”
Jeff Burton said he would like to see series officials do even more drug testing. “I honestly wish that we would test more than we do,” Burton said. “I wish that we would have a random number of drug tests throughout the year - you know you’re going to do five or six every year, or whatever the number is. There’s too much at stake for this sport, too much at stake for the drivers, the racetrack, the crew members on pit road,” Burton said.
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Glad to see someone thinking about helping the racing sport.Looks like Nascar should be more into catching the drug heads instead of building racecars and catching the guys in the grey area of the rules.Urin test every driver every race ..They go over the cars every race . Why not the drivers……??????
Hey Cheater, your real name is Chad Knaus, isn’t it? Since NASCAR won’t let you hide around the track you must be passing the time by posting here?
I agree with you about the drug testing. There’s no reason NASCAR can’t give that just as much of a priority as they do catching people bending the rules on the cars. This is much more serious than anything else they regulate.
I don’t know that they should do mandatory tests every week just because of the time and resources it would take, but if they said they were going to test say 10 random drivers or so every race and said at the beginning that every driver would be tested 15 times during the season I think that would be good.
Not just before a race because even that would be too circumventable. It should be randomly during the season at different times through out the week. Give whoever you’re going to be testing for that time period a few days notice and either have a tech go to them or have them report to some place for testing. There’s plenty all over the US so no matter where they go it wouldn’t be too inconvenient.
But… Should they test during the off season?
You can’t let them know when your going to test them! There are lots of ways to get around passing a piss test. That’s why it has to be random, they can’t expect it and “prepare” for it. And you have to be present when they are giving the urine, don’t want any swappers.
Couldn’t agree with my driver and his teammate more on this issue. No reason to be
involved in that stuff in the first place, nothing good comes from it. At least
NASCAR aint anywhere near how bad the NFL and MLB are, they are way to light on their
penalities.
I really do like the idea…
but if someone like tony stewart or dale jr. got caught….
imagine what that would do to the sport…
plus even if they were clean and failed for some reason…
just to much rumors and such could come from this….
its a tough situation for nascar…
Finally someone is using there head!! this is a great idea, i hope NASCAR does it randomly like 6 times a year!!!
Nice to hear it from the drivers. They are right, way too much is at stake besides the sport, the drivers and crews lives depend on these guys being clean.
Ummm, that was my comment above me, have no idea what happened.
I agree with that but people are judging fike before the facts are out,did nascar test him did he fail or refuse to take the test? that crap couldve been his girlfriends who knows but if it were then hes a idiot for allowing it to happen
The way i see it is what those drivers do on their own time is their business, not that of nascar not that of law officials not that of anybody else. So someone wants to smoke a joint the day b4 a race to calm their nerves. it does not affect the way he will drive (unless he takes it right b4 the race) and it definately does NOT put anyone in danger (again except when taken right b4 the race.)
SO what I am getting at is drug testing is wrong in NASCAR and in any job
who cares? if a driver wants to shoot heroin, smoke marlboro reds, or drink bleach while they’re not driving it’s their business.
Lee, their is a problem considering it is breaking the law and you do the crime you do the time, period end of story,
opinions don’t mean shit when it comes to this topic, it is against the law period
Jayson, I think his point is the drugs shouldn’t be illegal to begin
with, and as long as they’re not using it in close enough proximity
to race time that it’ll affect their driving, it shouldn’t matter.
I agree with the weed comment because really, alcohol is more detrimental
to health, reflex time, anything of the sort, than marijuana is.
Yet the drivers are obviously allowed to drink, and alcohol is
legal even though, as I said, it’s more dangerous. I don’t think they
should be allowed to use heroin, cocaine, anything like that though
because they have more dangerous lasting effects. I’m just a “legalize
marijuana” person. [[And no, I'm not a stoner]].
But I agree with drug testing; heroin and the like don’t need to be
thrown in the mix.
That is a load of crap obviously you havent seen the kind of damage drug abuse can do. And no i dont blame the drug it’s the abusers responsability. Drug abuse affects all of us not just those who are close to the abuser and i do put alcohol in that catagory. But a friend of mine was messed up by a drunk driver oh btw my friend works for Joe Gibbs as tire changer on Hamlins team.
Crack me up man, ( Jeff
Jul 14th, 2007 at 7:35 am
Hey Cheater, your real name is Chad Knaus, isn’t it? Since NASCAR won’t let you hide around the track you must be passing the time by posting here?)
I like the first part of this response.
Don’t ever presume to tell me that. Someone very close
to me used to be a pothead, and I’m the one who asked them to quit
because I realize the damage it can do. I never said it didn’t do any
damage, I said it does less physical and long-term damage than alcohol.
Believe me, I’m with you on the anti-drunk driving gig, more than
you could begin to realize. I was just stating my opinion in response
to the other man’s post about unlimited drug use.
If the testees were warned beforehand drug testing would do no good.
Many-a-friend of mine has used a pill of some kind that flushes your
system, or something of the like, when applying for a job. And I’m
sure abusers of any kind of drug have heard of it as well.
They need to test somany before each race at random for safety sake. I mean evry Nascar Event, Every Bush Event all the way down trucks open wheels any thing that is going to race They need to pull somany drivers for testing before they are allowed in a car,
and kevin havrick is the biggest jackass in the entire NASCAR series. yes that’s right - he’s a bigger a-hole than even kylie busch. when asked about the middle east turbulence, captain genius havrick said if he was in power he would just drop a bomb over there and finish it. hey jerk off, i know you have 1 brain cell but there are a lot of innocent people including women and children in the middle east. i guess you just happened to forget about them, huh?
AJ even though I dont like Harvick either could we just stay on topic?
What off season, Axel?
I’ve always said to give them I.Q tests!!!
ha, you’re right. There really is none.
I just think you should give them a couple of days notice considering their hectic lifestyles. There are certain tolerances most drug screeners abide by that allow those pills that flush your system to produce a negative on a piss test. Underneath a microscope its obvious whats going on in somebody’s body regardless of what they might try to do to hide it. All of those things that can be used to produce a false negative leave something behind. Most places just don’t have the time, the resources or simply aren’t allowed to push it further. NASCAR could have their own lab and own rules.
Smoking a joint the day before a race will definitely affect you. You might even win the race but it will have an affect. I really hate to tell ya’ll this but something like heroin would possibly affect you less before a race in the short term or even give you an advantage. In reality any drug could give you an unfair advantage in some way. Everyone should be equal and use the abilities that genetics gave them… That’s why these guys shouldn’t be doing drugs or drinking before a race. They owe it to everyone.