Kevin Harvick has received a crash course on privacy laws, learned how long different drugs stay in the system, and tested the drivers and crew chiefs on the teams he owns.
A month after the startling admission by former Craftsman Truck Series driver Aaron Fike that he used heroin on the day of races, Harvick has jumped ahead of NASCAR by requiring the drivers and crews on his Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series teams to submit to drug tests.
“This is a very clean environment,” said Harvick, who is a Sprint Cup driver for Richard Childress Racing. “But we have these incidents happen, as we did with Fike. We need all that to go away.”
Fike was never caught in NASCAR’s substance-abuse program, but was suspended after he was arrested last year and charged with possession of heroin and drug paraphernalia. He told ESPN The Magazine last month that he used heroin the same day he drove in races.
Shocked that Fike fell through the cracks of NASCAR’s drug policy, Harvick immediately thought of the dangers presented by a driver on the track under the influence. Harvick was once in a race with Fike.
“Running into a wall at 200 mph and putting 42 other drivers at risk is a much bigger consequence than not being able to hit a baseball,” said Harvick, who drives the No. 29 Chevrolet for RCR. “The responsibility needs to be put in everybody’s hands, whether it needs to be put in NASCAR’s hands, the team owners’ hands, the drivers’ hands.”
So Harvick and his wife, DeLana, who own a Nationwide Series car and two trucks in the Craftsman Truck Series, scrambled to put together a drug-testing program. Kevin Harvick Inc. drivers Ron Hornaday, Jack Sprague, Cale Gale and their crew chiefs all have submitted to drug tests in the past month.
“Just knowing that these guys that build these cars and trucks are clean just makes me feel that much safer,” Hornaday said. “It would be good to see everybody follow KHI’s lead and do the same.”
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Good on you Kevin! Others should follow you on this!
This could be a new trend in NASCAR. Once this story on Fike came out, I heard Rusty Wallace say that he tests his employees at RWI and now to hear that Kevin Harvick inc has joined the this fight is good to hear.
Since NASCAR will not do a full drug testing program, that doesn’t mean the owners can’t do it themselves.
What about NASCAR and the owners getting togther to launching a full drug testing program, it is the owners just as much as NASCAR’s job to do this, why not do it togther, besides NASCAR can’t test everyone know matter how much they try, but they do need a better program.
Right to privacy….
ill leave it at that
Ganjadude wrote:
You can take your right to privacy and stick it in your left ear. The track will be alot safer with less drug addicts. Oh btw if attacks on other people werent against the rules the message would end alot differant.
Salutations again to the Harvicks again! A ballsy, but smart move. They are the new trendsetters in NASCAR. I haven’t agreed with KevHead on anything in years but he looks like a freaking genius tonight!
Didn’t they announce this like right after the Fike thing came out or am I seeing the future…? l0l
Just about every company now-a-days has some form of drug testing, and NASCAR teams are not a group of buddies like most of your local race teams are they are a small business.
As far as right to privacy, that right holds no bounds in this case as you are working there on your own volition and if you do not want to submit to drug tests then you can leave. It’s not a privacy issue at all.
George Thompson wrote:
Sorry you feel that way. c ant see why you would feel the need to attack me over a comment tough guy. Im all for keeping people from using drugs while on the track, but what they do on monday is no ones business
Fisha695 wrote:
Yeah, they announced that they were going to do it a while back. I think this is just a follow-up saying that it’s in place. I think it’s totally awesome.
I’m a computer programmer and my company can tell me to pee in a cup any time they want for any old reason. In fact I had to take a drug test in the hiring process too. If I don’t like it, I’m free to walk whenever I want! Everywhere I’ve worked has had this policy for as long as I can remember now.
than why dont they make our government officials hold to that same standard. You know the ones who make the laws that allow this stuff. You know how many state workers I know just love to get their noses dirty? Judges, politicians, but NO ONE suggests that they should get a drug test.
Drug tests are no more than a profiling tactic 90% of the time
IF they could make a drug test that was more akin to a breathalyser where as it would only read IF you were CURRENTLY under the influence, I would LOVE for them to implement that, But like I said, driving safe on sunday, but what happens on monday is no ones business
Everybody who is a county employee of the county I live in has to have Quarterly drug tests, Rescue personnel have to have tests every other month.
Fisha695 wrote:
What about our men writing the laws. You know congress, judges, and presidents?
They dont and I know for a fact judges dont because…. well look at my name and do the math. I know a few judges