Forget testing the track, test the drivers

In the VERY recent history of NASCAR the France family has changed a lot of things. They’ve changed the car, the schedule, and the name twice. They’ve added the top 35 rule, limited the amount of past champions provisional’s, and changed qualifying procedures. We’ve been given The Chase featuring the top 10 and immediately had it expanded to the top 12. Why is NASCAR so quick to change tradition yet so stubborn to make changes in areas like drug testing?

Auto racing has tons more implications with drug use than the other “stick and ball” sports. If Kobe Bryant snorts to lines and kicks back a few pain pills before a game the risk of serious injury to other players is minimal. Obviously if he were doing those kinds of drugs injuries to himself wouldn’t be a concern. Arguably there’s a chance that he could be out of control and in turn injure another player, but even ending a career pales in comparison to what can happen in racing.

The amount of concentration a driver must have to basically wrestle a piece of machinery that’s easily a step and a half past the edge of scary is amazing. Could you imagine doing that under the influence? Surely even the staunchest of ignorant people who feel they can drive home from the bar half lit wouldn’t even consider trying to run in a 43 car pack at Talladega. A driver who is impaired is a danger to themselves and even more importantly is a danger to the other drivers and crew members. What Aaron Fike did was inexcusable. While I feel he could earn a second chance, he would have to do so under some nearly impossible conditions before I would ever allow him near a wheel. That brings me back to my initial point, testing.
In a sport where your life is literally on the line every time you take the track, including races, practice, and testing, why would you not have mandatory testing? The discussion tends to revolve around random testing, but in this situation I could see mandatory testing for the entire entry list every weekend being plausible.

So why does NASCAR seem so uneager to move forward? I’ve actually come up with a few reasons.

The 1st has to do with repercussions. This morning I heard a caller on The Morning Drive say that testing should be handled by the individual teams. If my phone hadn’t been dead I would have loved to call in to explain how insane that is. Let’s say I’m team owner X and I have the popular driver John Doe on my team. Earlier this season I’ve extended my contract with Doe’s primary sponsor for 3 more years at high money. Why? Well, he’s safely in the top 5 and would be hard pressed to miss The Chase at this point. He’s also a marketing dream. His Super Bowl ad was voted top 5 and women loved it. His merchandise is flying off the shelf and there’s talk he may be taking Michael Waltrip’s seat on TWIN. Then I get back his drug test. He’s apparently smoked some weed and taken high amounts of pain pills. I immediately set a meeting and we discuss the situation. He assures me that he’s only smoked a few times and it was nowhere near race day or the track. Doe also explains that his high intake of pain pills is tied to that accident he had at California. He assures me it’s not a problem and he’s easing back in the coming weeks. Since my drug testers, my driver, and myself are the only ones who know I decide it’s best for my business to sweep this under the rug for the time being. However, what I don’t know is that John Doe is taking handfuls of pain pills before he gets in the car just to get through the race. And 2 races from now he makes an error that causes Jeff Burton to break his neck and possible never walk again.

After running that scenario in my head I thought, “Wow, NASCAR itself could end up in the same boat.” I think NASCAR is somewhat scared of what will happen if a Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, or heaven forbid Dale Jr. fail a test and set on the sidelines for a year or longer. It’s severely short sited and scary, but it could be true as well.

The only way for testing to work is for a 100% 3rd party entity to handle all testing and in turn make the teams, owners, and management hands off except for the results. That’s how the major sports do it and that’s even how the WWE does it. If I live in world where the WWE has more credibility than one of my favorite legitimate sports then we have a problem.

NASCAR’s other big fear has to be in unionizing. When the details of a drug testing policy go into place, someone has to be in the negotiations representing the drivers. Things like penalties, when a test is made public, what parts are made public, etc. are all things that are collectively bargained by the players union in the NFL, MLB, and NBA. True, while NASCAR is using drivers as independent contractors they can decide the rules in which everyone lives by, but this is the kind of issue that could easily bring the drivers together in a union. I’m not sure the drivers even understand their power in this sport. If the next Darlington race comes around and there are 4 cars on the entry list how fast do you think NASCAR would be to listen to union demands? What I don’t think NASCAR is realizing is that by steering away from mandatory testing that they could be encouraging a union even more due to “unsafe work conditions”.

NASCAR needs to pay attention closely to what’s happening in the other sports. In the past 2 years every single major sport, even the ones who score much lower ratings than NASCAR, have been pulled into congress to discuss drug testing. Sure, they were focused on steroids and HGH, but if a congressman with a need for some spotlight gets wind of the Aaron Fike story we could be seeing the same thing and I don’t think that’s what any of us want.