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Loose in Turn Three-peat

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by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

April 18, 2008 3:12 pm CDT 3 Comments

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So, you tell me which is right - the old “third time’s a charm” saying or is my Loose in Turn Three-peatGrandmother’s favorite - “bad things happen in threes” - more appropriate for our ” Loose in Turn Three” project?

Check out hosts, Bruce Simmons’ Bruce’s Bits & Pieces, Tim Zaegel’s Do You NASCAR, and me, Bench Racing Charlie to get caught up on the complete discussion on this week’s three topics and please leave plenty of feedback. Thanks and enjoy!

Should NASCAR go to a more structured drug testing policy?

Charlie: Aaron Fike admitted last week that he had raced his Craftsman Truck while under the influence of heroin. Kevin Harvick stated that he is convinced that at least one other driver had raced while under some substance’s influence. NASCAR currently tests when they become suspicious. That is just too loose a policy for a major league sport – especially one that features its performers driving potentially lethal weapons. It’s time to do something more structured.

Random testing for narcotics and alcohol would be a place to start. I know it’s not simple. But figure it out, you know.

TZ: Ya know, I can actually go either way on this one. In NASCAR’s defense, being a former service member, I can say that when done properly, random testing can be very effective. When I look at the crews and drivers in the garage, I also believe that this is still the “clean” sport that it’s always been perceived to be, and these strike me as the type of guys that are more than capable of policing their
own. The only potential issue I can really see with drug use in this sport is the fact that the field keeps getting younger and younger, so you may have a red flag there. Overall – more structured? Yes. Strictly enforcing mandatory weekly testing? No.

Bruce: I’m with Charlie on this one. I’d like to think that when I’m hurtling along at 120 to 180 mph going into a corner, that there is some semblance of calm knowing that the guy next to or behind me isn’t hopped up and seeing giant butterflies sitting on the deck lid of the car in front of him. But how far NASCAR wants to go with this is the big question. Do you tag first, fifth, fifteenth and twenty-fifth finishing spots every week or pull short straws? It’s going to be how
they deploy the process of random testing that’s going to catch heat, no matter what.

That’s what we think. What do you think?

If you haven’t already, click over to TZ’s post on:

Will Tony Stewart Still Be 100% Committed to Toyota in Cup Series in 2009?

Then check out Bruce’s bits on this one:

What Do You Guys Think of the Fox Coverage at the Beginning of the Phoenix Race?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media , Inc.

Filed under: Craftsman Truck Series, It's Only Cheating if You Get Caught, Kevin Harvick, NASCAR officials, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Roush Racing, The Fast Lap, Turn 2 posts 

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Comments

3 Responses to “Loose in Turn Three-peat”

  1. Loose in Turn 3 (4/18/08) on April 18th, 2008 9:50 pm

    [...] Should NASCAR Go to a More Structured Drug Testing Policy? -What Do You Guys Think of the Fox Coverage at the Beginning of the Phoenix [...]

  2. RevJim on April 19th, 2008 2:01 am

    The Loose in Turn Three series is excellent. It reminds me of NASCAR dot com’s Track Smack, except the writers here are much more enlightened.
    Three problems with mandantory drug testing in NASCAR. What if Aaron Fike was lying about being high on heroin during the truck race? He may have just been going for a way to promote himself and get the maximum coverage for himself. I can’t believe somebody high on heroin or any opiate for that matter, would retain the reactive abilities to make the first turn at full speed, much less finish in the top ten. No, I haven’t done heroin myself, but I have seen plenty of people who have, and, believe me, if you see someone who is doing heroin, you know it. I don’t even understand how Fike could have climbed through the window without falling down.
    2. The cheaper the test, the more likely the result of a false positive. What would it do for NASCAR and the fans, if Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt, Jr got banned for life because of a false positive? Don’t tell me that has never happened, think about Tim Richmond’s positive for cold medicine.
    3. What ever happened to “innocent until proven guilty?” Now we are considered guilty until we can prove ourselves innocent. We want to be like the People’s Republic of China now?
    (I hope the verification code works this time. I can never get it right, but it seems that the spam bot in the previous post did. )

  3. Tim Zaegel on April 20th, 2008 8:44 pm

    RevJim, that’s good to hear you compare us to the Track Smack column at nascar.com … that was actually what we (or at least I) envisioned when we started this process.

    And, I, too seem to struggle with this particular spam filter.

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