NASCAR court fight: Did driver inhale fumes?
Tuesday, Jun. 09, 2009
Associated Press
Driver Jeremy Mayfield is all smiles at the North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, N.C., Friday, Oct. 20, 2000, after winning the pole for Sunday's NASCAR Pop Secret Popcorn 400 with a speed of 157.342 mph. (AP Photo/Erik Perel)
Suspended for failing a drug test, driver Jeremy Mayfield said he "inhaled fumes from a fiery wreck in the Talledega race," according to more court papers filed in the battle between Mayfield and NASCAR.
Mayfield was indefinitely suspended May 9 for failing a random drug test conducted May 1 at Richmond International Raceway. He filed suit to overturn his suspension on May 29.
In legal papers obtained Monday, a response by NASCAR drug testing firm Aegis Labs said a doctor asked Mayfield if he had taken any diet medications or inhalers, specifically, Vick’s Inhaler. Mayfield said he had not, the papers say.
Doctors said in the documents that they agreed with Mayfield's account from an earlier suit that in a subsequent phone call Mayfield said "he was in a fiery wreck while competing in the Talledega race in late April .... and inhaled a large amount of fumes."
The Talledega race was in late April, prior to Richmond.
NASCAR on Friday filed a countersuit, which claims Mayfield's admission of using attention deficit disorder drug Adderall without informing NASCAR - and his use of the drug at unsafe levels - violated the substance abuse policy. That violation would be in addition to an undisclosed illegal drug that showed up in his Richmond test. The name of the illegal drug was blacked out throughout the court documents.
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