Go Fast!

Earlier this week, we talked about how to fill the void until baseball starts. Another option for sports fan is NASCAR. It has started to make inroads with casual sports fan and NASCAR, opens its season next weekend in Daytona. You may laugh at the redneck that fills the infield of tracks around the Southern US, but the crowd has been changing over the last couple of years. Bigger corporate sponsors, suits in luxury boxes and more Grey Goose than Miller Lite in cups. To ensure that sponsors keep what money they have left in NASCAR they have done what other respectable leagues have done - they instituted a drug testing policy.

This policy came into play because former Truck series driver Aaron Fike admitted to driving a race while on heroin, cause you know that is a smart thing to do. So to protect other drivers, they decided to test for narcotics, beta blockers and steroids. The first test results were released on Thursday, and it was a good thing Michael Phelps wasn't tested, but all the drivers passed this round with ease. Unfortunately, some crew members on some of the teams weren't so lucky. Two members of Kevin Harvick's crew tested positive, Kevin had this to say - from espn.com;

"I wasn't pleased with a couple of tests we got from our team at KHI,'' he said. "We had a couple of people that didn't do so good, but that's what it's for.''

Harvick said members of the team not on the KHI pit crew are given one chance after a failed test.

"The pit crew guys have known this stuff was coming,'' he said. "I don't have any tolerance for that stuff.''

Harvick says that he doesn't have any tolerance for drug usage, but is giving his crew members that failed a test one more chance. Good for Harvick for having his crew's back, like they have his during a race. Apparently changing tires while high is fine by him, don't forget to tighten that lug nut!

I have never understood why recreational drugs are banned by the IOC and other leagues. They don't help with performance, training, nutrition or anything that might even classify as being good for you. That is why they let Ross Rebagliati keep his snowboarding gold medal - smokin' the reefer didn't make him go down that hill faster.

Following the drug tests of the crew members after every race should be a fun sub-plot to the NASCAR season...vroom vroom.