Does Mandatory Drug Testing Have A Place In Our Sport?

By: Pete MacDonald

This seems to again all the sudden be one of the major topics of discussion in the Sprint Car world.

We are all aware of what happened last summer in the unfortunate INCIDENT between Kevin Ward Jr. and Tony Stewart, in which Ward was under the influence of Marijuana when the incident occurred, enough to impair him at least. Which made me think to myself what is it going to take to get mandatory drug testing to take place on the short track level? Take a second and think about it, you’re running side by side with someone at 140 MPH barreling off into a corner, You would want to know if that person wasn’t under the influence of something right?

Does mandatory drug testing need to be put in place at the short track level? NASCAR mandates it and randomly tests you throughout the year and in the nitro categories the NHRA requires you to pass a drug test, get a physical and a vision test before they issue you a license for the year, so why can’t your local short track do the same? Drivers such as Donny Schatz, Daryn Pittman, Danny Lasoski, Kerry Madsen among a cast of others are all up for it being done. Madsen’s home country of Australia tests Sprint Car drivers regularly using an Olympic-style test.

Some of the pros would be the fact that racers would be confident in knowing that the people that they are competing against are indeed coherent  and drug free. It would help keep the “family mentality” intact.  In a world where you read about this person or that person overdosing on a daily basis maybe it would help comfort people that us a sport is taking a stand against it.

Cons would be a good amount of car count would be gone, it’s no hidden secret that race car drivers aren’t angels by any means and the cost of the testing would be great. Do doctors really belong in our sport?  We could save our drivers and sponsors some embarrassment IF they were deemed to be using drugs , and the bottom line is it would cast a dark shadow over the sport in general.

People can argue that as soon as you start testing driver’s car counts will drastically drop off because a vast amount are under in the influence of something. And in this day and age does anyone really want to turn cars and drivers away?  I truly think that’s a bunch of BS and a cop out for not doing it. It’s for their own safety and to perhaps prevent another accident like that happening ever again. Granted the cost could be great due to paying for the test and analyzing the tests but I’m sure at the end of the day if the track’s go to their insurance company and told them what they were doing, they would help out with covering the costs.

What do you think? Does drug testing have a part in our sport? Tell us over on the RacersGuide.com Discussion Forum! For questions, comments or concerns I can be emailed at info@racersguide.com or I’m on Twitter @PMacDonald51 Thanks!