I understand the sentiment expressed here, but Mayfield had involvement too. Could more have been done to help him? Sure. The saying about people in glass houses and stones lives on, undefeated, through Brian France tonight.
Mayfield had his own problems to worry about, but he was right. He tried to tell everybody. He did his part. Nobody listened. I can’t put any blame on him.
I honestly don’t think he was doing anything illegal. He talked some shit about Ray Evernham (who later admitted it was true) having an affair and then tested positive from Claratin mixed with some other meds like adderal that turned into him doing crystal meth. Mayfield could provide testimony and scripts that backed his claim it was over the counter meds mixed with his prescription meds. Claratin at the time was a big money sponsor for Carl Edwards and NASCAR on Fox, so they likely were covering their sponsors. He then tested positive a second time, but produced a doctor who could claim that the amount he tested postitive for would have killed him. The third time he tested positive (for the same thing) he went to a certified independent lab immediately after his NASCAR test and was clean. Now, I’m not naive so I know tests are beatable if you know one is coming, but I don’t think he had enough time in the 3rd case to pull some funny shit between his tests. The 2011 arrests, I’m not really sure what to think (or about his whole ordeal in general) and while he certainly didn’t do himself any favors during his career, he was pretty much blackballed from the sport. And now that the BZF issues has come to light, it certainly shines more credibility onto Mayfield.
Just FYI I'm about to launch a new podcast series covering NASCAR. But it's going to be a bit different than anything out there at all right now..... With so much discussion about the "good old days" not being so good I decided to see for myself. There will be a select group of people who will assist me in this project but what we are going to do is unique and never before done. We are going to take a year in NASCAR history and break it down. We aren't going to do 30 minutes on a season and say that's the story. Oh nooooo..........we are going to go week-to-week through a NASCAR season and watch the races that are available. We are going to make notes about the races and look for old newspaper articles to go along with the weeks. This is not just a podcast about a year in NASCAR that can be covered in one sitting. Our episodes will cover everything surrounding ALL of the races on the schedule. Every race (that we have in it's entirety) will likely be covered in it's own show. That's the detail we plan on putting into this effort. Each episode will break down races in their entirety. If there is a funny moment with the announcers making a flub during a race we will talk about it. And we will post to Facebook and Twitter little clips regarding these races to go along with the podcast. We will include newspaper clippings to go along with the stories we tell during each episode. This is not just a podcast, it's a true retrospective. It's a history lesson but most importantly an opportunity to revisit the past and tell some stories that may have been lost to time. We want this show to be as interactive as possible with fans, former crew members, former drivers, etc. Each episode we will field fan questions and read comments on the air. We don't claim to know everything, we're by and large fans ourselves. So to have community involvement will be a big part in making this a success. The first year picked to do a deep dive on was 1986. It was an interesting year in NASCAR Winston Cup Racing. By and large it was a still a snapshot of NASCAR in a time where it was considered just a southern sport. Thanks to YouTube the majority of 1986 races are available in their entirety. There are some races where there are just shorter highlight videos so we will do the best we can with what is available. But rest assured, each race will be covered as together we revisit the 1986 NASCAR Winston Cup season. Future years will be covered down the road and we don't plan on going straight from 86 to 87. We'll likely put up a poll of a few years to choose from for the next deep dive. Saying all of this what would YOU like to see from a podcast like this? There will be two podcasts covering Daytona. The first one in the series will go over the 85 offseason, the players heading into 86, the news heading into 86, and the Busch Clash. Show two will be dedicated to the Daytona 500 itself. Just for reference I have sourced close to 100 newspaper articles JUST for Daytona that has interesting news and facts that can be talked about within the show. I've got excerpts from 6 books just for Daytona as well. Plus as I find funny things doing research I'm making YouTube clips. Here's my first three: Chris Economaki the G.O.A.T. Harry Hyde is NOT HAPPY Woman Crossing Track During Bristol Qualifying
Didn't realize that Wickens is paralyzed from the chest down from his crash at Pocono. In four races there, Indycar has had a death and someone paralyzed. Crazy.
Never thought Jimmie Johnson would make me yearn for the sound of the old F1 engines but here we are...
Good start to the day so far. Rossi and Simon put on a helluva show at the end. Monaco was somewhat exciting mostly due to the fact that it's impossible to pass. Still crazy that Hamilton went almost 70 laps on Mediums, though.
