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Alleges discrimination to NASCAR's refusal to let him race
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
July 23, 2009
01:43 PM EDT
-DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Jeremy Mayfield, who says he's "80 percent there" on getting a major sponsorship deal that might enable him to once again drive in the Sprint Cup Series, isn't on the entry list for Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
But that doesn't mean he won't be at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend.
"I'd like to come to Indy just to come watch, and to try to get a ride," Mayfield said. "We're working on sponsorship deals as we speak and I'm telling you, if this works out, it's going to be big.
"And what's funny is, it could be big in all kinds of different ways, and all I needed was [NASCAR's] support, and to work with me on this. They could have had races sponsored and tracks sponsored and I could have been with one of their big teams with a big sponsor and I guess they don't want that, because I didn't need them to get it."
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said that he is "unfamiliar with the possible sponsor opportunity" that Mayfield references.
Yet, Mayfield's description of the company he's talking to was vivid.
"Sounds like a union, doesn't it?" Mayfield said. "Imagine if they got involved, and they're behind me 200 percent right now. America's not about a dictatorship no more and it never was."
Since early May, Mayfield's experienced a wide range of emotions, but he said he was sure of one thing Tuesday, as he contemplated whether or not he'd make a trip to Indianapolis.
"It's not doing anybody any good -- none of this," Mayfield said. "I can't figure out one angle of this whole thing that's helping NASCAR. What [NASCAR] is saying is doing nothing but hurting the sport."
The latest step in the ongoing case came Tuesday evening, when Mayfield's attorneys filed the results of his latest negative drug tests, which were conducted the afternoon and late evening of July 6.
On July 1, U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen in Charlotte, N.C., granted Mayfield an injunction to NASCAR's suspension that would have allowed Mayfield on the race track, beginning July 4 at Daytona International Speedway.
Mayfield didn't show at Daytona, citing a lack of time to prepare one of his own cars. He decided instead to pursue getting something in place to race at Chicagoland Speedway on July 11. That event also came and went without Mayfield. Indy is scheduled next.
But late Monday afternoon NASCAR issued a statement that said, in the aftermath of a second positive test -- taken at Mayfield's North Carolina home on the evening of July 6, for what NASCAR's drug program administrator, Aegis Sciences Corp., called methamphetamine -- "we would not allow him to compete at this stage."
Mayfield's attorneys on Monday filed paperwork in District Court in Charlotte asking the injunction remain in effect. Poston said the sanctioning body has filings challenging it with both the U.S. District Court and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.
"The appeals court could rule at any time and the District Court would rule some time after receiving Mayfield's reply [from Monday]," Poston said.
An independent drug test on Mayfield on July 6 was negative for methamphetamines, contradicting the results of the NASCAR test taken 40 minutes earlier, the driver claimed in court documents filed Tuesday.
In response to NASCAR's claim that Mayfield again tested positive for methamphetamines on July 6, Mayfield on Tuesday submitted an affidavit to the U.S. District Court that said he traveled to Frye Regional Medical Center in Hickory, N.C., right after NASCAR collected a sample at his Catawba County home.
Tuesday morning, Mayfield was baffled by NASCAR's alleged refusal to allow him to compete. He said he's continued to take Adderall for a diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
"That's the first I've heard that they wouldn't allow me on a race track, and I don't know how they could overrule a federal judge about allowing me on the race track," Mayfield said. "But it wouldn't surprise me; because that's why they're in the situation they're in right now, and the same reason why they were in a situation with [Tim] Richmond, and the same reason why they were in the situation with Mauricia Grant [discrimination lawsuit that was settled out of court].
"Because they're the almighty, they're the big dog, they're the huge company that can do whatever they want to do and don't have to abide by any laws, any federal guidelines. They don't have to listen to what a federal judge says, I guess that's what they're saying, and sooner or later the federal government is going to step in.
"[NASCAR] hasn't really won anything yet, and they're [upset] about that. [NASCAR] doesn't really have any say-so about whether I go back on a race track or not. I really take this as discrimination. If they say I can't get on the race track, for what reason? If they're saying it's because I've got ADD and I take Adderall, now they're discriminating against me, or blackballing me, whichever you want to call it.
"I just can't believe they wouldn't allow me on the race track, which I guess is at their discretion, again."
NASCAR has contended since it suspended Mayfield that due to his alleged failed drug tests, he's a danger to other competitors and to the public.
Mayfield said he's trying to create the groundwork for what he hopes will be a return to Sprint Cup competition as a driver, with a sizeable sponsorship. Mayfield said he's working with Robert Craddock of SmallSponsor.com, who backed Mayfield Motorsports earlier this season, on a possible deal with a company the driver said was involved in the sport earlier in his career.
"We're getting real close on doing that, as a matter of fact it's closer than I ever dreamed of," Mayfield said. "And trust me, the money we're talking about, I could probably go to any team out there and drive for them. We're on a mission now to raise enough money where it's gonna be hard for any team out there to turn this down.
"I'm the only one right now that fits their mold. It's somebody that's involved in everything that goes on in America, really. They're going to show the world that they're going to help the guy that needs help. Trust me, they're bigger than NASCAR and when they come back in a big way they're going to show they're not going to let the big company destroy the little man. That's what they're all about; they don't ever let the company run over the worker."
But in light of what he experienced in the aftermath of the injunction being issued, he said the court case would have to be dealt with, first.
"Before I get any owner involved, I want to get the deal done, where I can walk in the garage area and say I've got whatever it is -- $15 million a year or whatever it takes -- and then to be able to see how it all works out," Mayfield said. "I've got to do something and going back and trying to run my own team and barely making races is not want I want to do. I want to go back in a big way.
Hopefully, somebody out there will take me in and put all of this behind us and go forward. Nobody [team owners] will talk to you right now and when you've got Ramsey making statements like they're not going to let me back on the track, everybody's afraid to put me in a car, afraid to get blackballed, which again is unfair to the team and me and everybody.
"I've tried hard and the only way I'm going to be able to get back in is to find somebody that believes in me that will put the money up to go forward and hopefully, somebody will accept that and we'll put all this behind us."
He repeated an earlier assertion that his Mayfield Motorsports team, which was created in January 2009, would probably not reappear. Most of his employees were laid off in early June, about a week after his team attempted to qualify May 24 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, the last race the No. 41 appeared, with J.J. Yeley as its driver.
Mayfield's team manager, Bobby Wooten, its last remaining employee, resigned last week as Mayfield tries to execute selling his equipment to someone he only said was "currently involved in motorsports."
"He stayed on to try to help me sell it or hopefully put something back together, but it didn't look good, so he had to do what he had to do, and we left on good terms," Mayfield said of Wooten. "I haven't talked to him in the last few days, but I'm sure he'll find something, because he's a good guy.
"Me selling my own team doesn't matter [to his hoped-for sponsorship], I need to [sell] anyway because I don't need to be a driver/owner -- I did that to get back into the picture, here, to hopefully get a ride. We're still in the process of trying to close the deal with a guy to sell the assets of it. When you've got a big sponsorship, you can pretty much go wherever you want to go.
"It's just better off for me to go and drive for one of the bigger teams that's already established and has got good motors and all that stuff already."
Until Mayfield's Tuesday filing, NASCAR had questioned the legitimacy of Mayfield's testing trail, which is just the latest in the "he said, they said" aspect of the case.
"When you look at 15 tests, since May 1, why are they all negative for methamphetamine, except two [done by Aegis Science's] Dr. David Black?" Mayfield said. "The test that was done [July 6] 30 minutes after theirs, was [analyzed] even more than Aegis tests, to make sure, because we weren't going to say we weren't testing the same way they were.
"We haven't shown our whole hand yet, but I can promise you that we're not going to go get tested and not be the same way, or better than what Aegis tests."
"There are no organizations with drug-testing programs that recognize or accept test results from an individual who has tested positive and then self tests by choosing the date, the time and the circumstances for the sample collection and self test," Dr. Black has said previously.
Mayfield refuted that when speaking of his actions on July 6, when NASCAR delivered a test request to Mayfield's voice mail. Mayfield had one test done on that afternoon as he tried to find NASCAR's requested lab then and, after NASCAR drug testers came to his home in the evening, he went and was tested again.
"It wasn't my time and it wasn't my lab of choice -- I went straight to the emergency room and trust me, I had better things I wanted to do that night than go to the emergency room and go get tested again," Mayfield said. "So I didn't have a choice of what lab I went to. I went to the most credible lab in the United States, if that makes you feel any better."
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
July 23, 2009
01:43 PM EDT
-DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Jeremy Mayfield, who says he's "80 percent there" on getting a major sponsorship deal that might enable him to once again drive in the Sprint Cup Series, isn't on the entry list for Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
But that doesn't mean he won't be at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend.
"I'd like to come to Indy just to come watch, and to try to get a ride," Mayfield said. "We're working on sponsorship deals as we speak and I'm telling you, if this works out, it's going to be big.
"And what's funny is, it could be big in all kinds of different ways, and all I needed was [NASCAR's] support, and to work with me on this. They could have had races sponsored and tracks sponsored and I could have been with one of their big teams with a big sponsor and I guess they don't want that, because I didn't need them to get it."
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said that he is "unfamiliar with the possible sponsor opportunity" that Mayfield references.
Yet, Mayfield's description of the company he's talking to was vivid.
"Sounds like a union, doesn't it?" Mayfield said. "Imagine if they got involved, and they're behind me 200 percent right now. America's not about a dictatorship no more and it never was."
Since early May, Mayfield's experienced a wide range of emotions, but he said he was sure of one thing Tuesday, as he contemplated whether or not he'd make a trip to Indianapolis.
"It's not doing anybody any good -- none of this," Mayfield said. "I can't figure out one angle of this whole thing that's helping NASCAR. What [NASCAR] is saying is doing nothing but hurting the sport."
The latest step in the ongoing case came Tuesday evening, when Mayfield's attorneys filed the results of his latest negative drug tests, which were conducted the afternoon and late evening of July 6.
On July 1, U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen in Charlotte, N.C., granted Mayfield an injunction to NASCAR's suspension that would have allowed Mayfield on the race track, beginning July 4 at Daytona International Speedway.
Mayfield didn't show at Daytona, citing a lack of time to prepare one of his own cars. He decided instead to pursue getting something in place to race at Chicagoland Speedway on July 11. That event also came and went without Mayfield. Indy is scheduled next.
But late Monday afternoon NASCAR issued a statement that said, in the aftermath of a second positive test -- taken at Mayfield's North Carolina home on the evening of July 6, for what NASCAR's drug program administrator, Aegis Sciences Corp., called methamphetamine -- "we would not allow him to compete at this stage."
Mayfield's attorneys on Monday filed paperwork in District Court in Charlotte asking the injunction remain in effect. Poston said the sanctioning body has filings challenging it with both the U.S. District Court and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.
"The appeals court could rule at any time and the District Court would rule some time after receiving Mayfield's reply [from Monday]," Poston said.
An independent drug test on Mayfield on July 6 was negative for methamphetamines, contradicting the results of the NASCAR test taken 40 minutes earlier, the driver claimed in court documents filed Tuesday.
In response to NASCAR's claim that Mayfield again tested positive for methamphetamines on July 6, Mayfield on Tuesday submitted an affidavit to the U.S. District Court that said he traveled to Frye Regional Medical Center in Hickory, N.C., right after NASCAR collected a sample at his Catawba County home.
Tuesday morning, Mayfield was baffled by NASCAR's alleged refusal to allow him to compete. He said he's continued to take Adderall for a diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
"That's the first I've heard that they wouldn't allow me on a race track, and I don't know how they could overrule a federal judge about allowing me on the race track," Mayfield said. "But it wouldn't surprise me; because that's why they're in the situation they're in right now, and the same reason why they were in a situation with [Tim] Richmond, and the same reason why they were in the situation with Mauricia Grant [discrimination lawsuit that was settled out of court].
"Because they're the almighty, they're the big dog, they're the huge company that can do whatever they want to do and don't have to abide by any laws, any federal guidelines. They don't have to listen to what a federal judge says, I guess that's what they're saying, and sooner or later the federal government is going to step in.
"[NASCAR] hasn't really won anything yet, and they're [upset] about that. [NASCAR] doesn't really have any say-so about whether I go back on a race track or not. I really take this as discrimination. If they say I can't get on the race track, for what reason? If they're saying it's because I've got ADD and I take Adderall, now they're discriminating against me, or blackballing me, whichever you want to call it.
"I just can't believe they wouldn't allow me on the race track, which I guess is at their discretion, again."
NASCAR has contended since it suspended Mayfield that due to his alleged failed drug tests, he's a danger to other competitors and to the public.
Mayfield said he's trying to create the groundwork for what he hopes will be a return to Sprint Cup competition as a driver, with a sizeable sponsorship. Mayfield said he's working with Robert Craddock of SmallSponsor.com, who backed Mayfield Motorsports earlier this season, on a possible deal with a company the driver said was involved in the sport earlier in his career.
"We're getting real close on doing that, as a matter of fact it's closer than I ever dreamed of," Mayfield said. "And trust me, the money we're talking about, I could probably go to any team out there and drive for them. We're on a mission now to raise enough money where it's gonna be hard for any team out there to turn this down.
"I'm the only one right now that fits their mold. It's somebody that's involved in everything that goes on in America, really. They're going to show the world that they're going to help the guy that needs help. Trust me, they're bigger than NASCAR and when they come back in a big way they're going to show they're not going to let the big company destroy the little man. That's what they're all about; they don't ever let the company run over the worker."
But in light of what he experienced in the aftermath of the injunction being issued, he said the court case would have to be dealt with, first.
"Before I get any owner involved, I want to get the deal done, where I can walk in the garage area and say I've got whatever it is -- $15 million a year or whatever it takes -- and then to be able to see how it all works out," Mayfield said. "I've got to do something and going back and trying to run my own team and barely making races is not want I want to do. I want to go back in a big way.
Hopefully, somebody out there will take me in and put all of this behind us and go forward. Nobody [team owners] will talk to you right now and when you've got Ramsey making statements like they're not going to let me back on the track, everybody's afraid to put me in a car, afraid to get blackballed, which again is unfair to the team and me and everybody.
"I've tried hard and the only way I'm going to be able to get back in is to find somebody that believes in me that will put the money up to go forward and hopefully, somebody will accept that and we'll put all this behind us."
He repeated an earlier assertion that his Mayfield Motorsports team, which was created in January 2009, would probably not reappear. Most of his employees were laid off in early June, about a week after his team attempted to qualify May 24 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, the last race the No. 41 appeared, with J.J. Yeley as its driver.
Mayfield's team manager, Bobby Wooten, its last remaining employee, resigned last week as Mayfield tries to execute selling his equipment to someone he only said was "currently involved in motorsports."
"He stayed on to try to help me sell it or hopefully put something back together, but it didn't look good, so he had to do what he had to do, and we left on good terms," Mayfield said of Wooten. "I haven't talked to him in the last few days, but I'm sure he'll find something, because he's a good guy.
"Me selling my own team doesn't matter [to his hoped-for sponsorship], I need to [sell] anyway because I don't need to be a driver/owner -- I did that to get back into the picture, here, to hopefully get a ride. We're still in the process of trying to close the deal with a guy to sell the assets of it. When you've got a big sponsorship, you can pretty much go wherever you want to go.
"It's just better off for me to go and drive for one of the bigger teams that's already established and has got good motors and all that stuff already."
Until Mayfield's Tuesday filing, NASCAR had questioned the legitimacy of Mayfield's testing trail, which is just the latest in the "he said, they said" aspect of the case.
"When you look at 15 tests, since May 1, why are they all negative for methamphetamine, except two [done by Aegis Science's] Dr. David Black?" Mayfield said. "The test that was done [July 6] 30 minutes after theirs, was [analyzed] even more than Aegis tests, to make sure, because we weren't going to say we weren't testing the same way they were.
"We haven't shown our whole hand yet, but I can promise you that we're not going to go get tested and not be the same way, or better than what Aegis tests."
"There are no organizations with drug-testing programs that recognize or accept test results from an individual who has tested positive and then self tests by choosing the date, the time and the circumstances for the sample collection and self test," Dr. Black has said previously.
Mayfield refuted that when speaking of his actions on July 6, when NASCAR delivered a test request to Mayfield's voice mail. Mayfield had one test done on that afternoon as he tried to find NASCAR's requested lab then and, after NASCAR drug testers came to his home in the evening, he went and was tested again.
"It wasn't my time and it wasn't my lab of choice -- I went straight to the emergency room and trust me, I had better things I wanted to do that night than go to the emergency room and go get tested again," Mayfield said. "So I didn't have a choice of what lab I went to. I went to the most credible lab in the United States, if that makes you feel any better."
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