Abomonog

Last week I heard an announcement that a driver was "banned indefinately" from racing for using drugs. Never heard who or what drug he was using though.

If the answer is steroid use, I'll be spending the rest of the season pointing at TV screens and laughing at NASCAR officials.

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tooms

well i got curious and started looking around and found it

here it is

looks like it was his second offence, but they didn't say what is was. and he's a busch series driver, which is kinda like what triple A is to baseball.

Abomonog

Thanks man..

Yeah, No one has said what he was banned for I guess. But the Speed channel mentioned that officials believe that all the Nextel cup wrecks are because of drivers having drug problems. However, I've noticed that all the races have been much tighter under the new rules then they ever had before. Daytona looked like a major freeway traffic jam moving at 200 MPH. So have all the other 1 mile plus tracks so far this year. In fact, the super speedway races have been tighter than the short track races. One can't expect 43 cars to travel nose to tail at those speeds for 500 miles without something happening. Wrecking is part of the sport. that's what all that safety equipment is for.

I can understand testing athletes for speed and steroids, but other than testing for sobriety, drug testing race car drivers has got to be the dumbest idea ever brought up. Is sniffing a line actually going to make the car go faster? A can of octane boost in the gas tank at each pitstop would do better. Sheesh.

tooms

i dunno, racing at the big tracks like talledega and daytona are always gonna be tight because of restrictor plates. that's why eveybody always talks about "the big one" at these tracks, because nobody can really get away from anybody. really at that level unless guys are loading up before track time drugs wouldn't be a big problem. you drive a those speeds enough and it actually becomes pretty mundane. but with all the attention the other sports are getting from congress i don't blame nascar for trying to avoid the perception of having a drug problem. oh and octane booster wouldn't do crap for a stock car.

Abomonog

Hehe, the Octane booster comment was sarcasm, tooms. But did you watch the Lowes race the other weekend? It looked more like a Talledega race than a Lowes race. It also happened to set a new Nascar record for the most cautions of any race (22). With the exception of the first 80 laps or so, in no case did the race go over 10 laps without a caution. In one case it was because a section of the track started peeling off (a chunk of it knocked a large hole in Gordons front end) but all the rest were wrecks and a blown engine (which caused a wreck if I remember right).

Nascar has the cars so closely tuned that on any track longer than a mile it's almost a drafting contest. Drivers have been grumbling about the tightness of the races all year. It does make good watching, but it's very dangerous for the drivers.

bongwater

I would imagine the drug testing would be so people dont drive while under the influence, obviously being on drugs isnt going to affect their cars performance

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