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Random: New drug policy was long time coming
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Published: September 21, 2008
Updated: 09/21/2008 12:20 am
DOVER, Del. - NASCAR has finally put the finishing touches on amendments to its substance-abuse and drug-testing policies, and it is pretty much covering all the bases -- except providing any list of what drugs are banned.
Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR's vice president of racing operations, held a 30-minute news conference yesterday morning at Dover International Speedway to brief the media on the new policy, after meeting with teams here. The new policy appears much more aggressive than the long-standing drug policy, which dates to the Tim Richmond era more than 20 years ago.
The biggest chunks of the new policy are these:
o NASCAR will be expanding its current substance-abuse policy to include random at-track testing of drivers and crewmen and will be requiring team owners to provide medical certification of drug testing for all NASCAR licensed crewmen, it was announced yesterday.
o NASCAR will also have drivers undergo "base-line" drug testing before the start of the 2009 series, and O'Donnell said that might be required again before the 2010 season, but that had yet to be determined.
o All the testing will be done by an outside agency.
NASCAR officials, too, will be tested, and O'Donnell said he and Jim Hunter, the vice president for corporate communications, would be at the head of the line.
The NASCAR announcement has long been expected, since April's Aaron Fike case prompted a number of drivers, such as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick, to push NASCAR to add random testing. NASCAR for years has reserved the right to test anyone at the track based on "reasonable suspicion," and O'Donnell said that policy remains in effect. The new adjustments will add a "significant" number of weekly random tests, O'Donnell said. And he said it would be "costly."
The announcement comes a week after NASCAR's drug policies came back to the fore when Truck champion Ron Hornaday's name came up in an investigation of anti-aging clinics, and questions were raised about prescriptions he had in 2004 and 2005 for testosterone cream. Hornaday said he had been taking that for treatment of what turned out to be a life-threatening thyroid condition, for which he takes a steroid to keep under control. NASCAR officials reviewed that situation and cleared Hornaday of any wrongdoing.
"We believe we have a clean sport," O'Donnell said.
"We're all about safety, and we needed to do this to make our policy even stronger."
O'Donnell called NASCAR's new drug-policy requirements not a new policy but rather "an amendment to the current policy," which he described as one of the most far-reaching in sports.
But O'Donnell said that there would be no specific list of banned drugs; rather, an open-ended approach to potentially abused drugs would be used.
The three main drug areas to be considered, he said, are narcotics, beta blockers and steroids. "But our policy will be broad-ranging," he said.
O'Donnell said that "the nuts and bolts of our policy remain the same."
And that includes A samples and B samples. If a person tests positive for one of NASCAR's disallowed drugs, that person, O'Donnell said, would be interviewed by the sport's medical-review officer about why. And that person then could request that the B sample then also be tested.
O'Donnell said that about a dozen people in each series, including a couple of drivers, would be randomly tested each week at the track, with their names generated by computer. O'Donnell said that those names would not be released. He said that the only public acknowledgement of the results of any particular test would come if there were true positives reported and penalties assessed.
"We'll alert the media when there is a positive test," he said.
O'Donnell said that a similar series of meetings was also held yesterday morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, site of the weekend's Truck tour race.
NASCAR's new expanded testing program, O'Donnell said, "can get pretty expensive.
"Any substance-abuse test we do will be broad, sweeping and comprehensive.
"Normally the categories you look at are any narcotic that can be abused, beta blockers and steroids. Those are the three key areas we'll look at.
"But we've got the capability to test for any substance.
"As with any new program, there will be questions about how it will work, what will you be testing for. What we did today was lay out the basics and let them know we'll have people on-site to discuss where we're going.
"We feel we've taken a good policy and made it even better," O'Donnell said.
"We've had a number of discussions with the other professional sports leagues, a lot of industry experts, and Dr. David Black and AEGIS Sciences Corporation.
"We've had a relationship with Dr. Black over the last 20 years. He founded AEGIS, and AEGIS is the largest independent sports and forensic testing laboratory in the United States. We've always been with the right group, and we're going to continue that relationship....
"Beginning 2009 we're going to institute a base-line test, that will take place for drivers in Daytona during pre-season test (in January). Every driver who attends the testing session will be required to submit to a substance abuse test. All those tests will be administered by an outside agency, AEGIS.
"We want an outside agency to administer the test. We think that's the most fair thing to take any potential bias out of it.
"We're also going to institute a mandatory test (certification) from owners for all of their licensed crew members. We're going to require owners have their tests certified by a SAMHSA lab--Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration."
Safety first
Random testing has been expected. Preseason base-line testing was not.
"It's basically taking a sampling of where you're at today and taking a look at it," O'Donnell said.
Why these changes, and why now?
"It's incumbent upon all of us at NASCAR to think safety first," O'Donnell said. "The safety of our competitors and fans.
"We just think it's the right program at the right time for us to put into place."
However, there is still much secrecy surrounding NASCAR's drug policies, and the no-list aspect may be curious.
"We don't notify anybody as to who's tested or if there's a negative test," O'Donnell said. "The only time you'll hear us talk about a test is when we have a positive that's been verified. That will be no different than our policy today."
But no list of specifically banned substances? O'Donnell defended that: "We think we have the broadest policy in all of sports. The reason we don't have a list is we believe that a list is restrictive.
"There are new drugs out there every day. By having a broad policy, that doesn't list anything, we feel we can test for any substance that may be abused; no different than our policy today.
"We've never had a list. Right now in our policy cough medicine could be abused, if you're taking that too much and it's going to affect the safety on the racetrack.
"That won't change. We'll test for anything.
"Our experts are very familiar with prescriptions people may be taking and legitimate medications.
"But we will not have a list.
"Drivers are required to let us know what they're taking. Prior to the start of the season, drivers let us know, from their physicians, what medications they're taking, what allergies they have. And they are also required during the season to let us know of any health changes they have.
"All that's communicated to our substance-abuse expert."
O'Donnell said that steroids are just being added to the "non-list" of potentially abused substances: "We do test for steroids. That is new. That will be for over-the-wall crew as well."
The penalties for failing a NASCAR drug test have been severe, and O'Donnell said that will continue: "NASCAR has had one of the strictest penalties when it comes to substance abuse, and that's not going to change.
"A driver, or anyone tested, for that matter, who tests positive just one time could receive a lifetime ban. And we're pretty much on the record with three times is an automatic lifetime ban.
"If any our officials see a driver that we think has a problem, we can test them immediately. The ‘reasonable suspicion' clause stays in effect.
"The nature of this program is safety first. That's safety for the competitors and the fans and everyone involved in the sport.
"Any violation for us--different from other sports--is immediate suspension.
"We have a pretty strong record: Any violation, you're out; until our experts tell you it's OK to come back in."
■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.
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