In as many months, NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield has twice tested positive for methamphetamine. The first positive test was released by NASCAR on June 9, and it went by with minimal fuss: NASCAR driver has drug problem, NASCAR catches drug-addled driver, NASCAR moves on. End scene.
This time might not be so quiet. Not only is Mayfield again disputing NASCAR's positive test result, which is bad enough on its own, he's launching foul tirades against his own family members. How did we get here?
Here's how: NASCAR backed up the most recent positive Mayfield test with a sworn affadavit from Mayfield's mother, who claimed she has witnessed Mayfield smoke meth over 30 times. NASCAR used that evidence in their case to prevent Mayfield's reinstatement in the racing league. So Mayfield responded the way any reasonable, totally non-speed-addled person might: by calling his mother an awful word and accusing her of killing his father.
"She's basically a whore," he told ESPN.com's David Newton. "She shot and killed my dad. She knows what we've got on her," Mayfield said. "For her to come out and do this is pretty ballsy. Everybody that's ever known me knows I never, ever have been around her for more than 10 hours of my life. She's a gold digger. I knew that from Day 1."
Calling her the dreaded w-word -- only one slot below the atom bomb of insults -- is bad enough. Accusing her of killing your father, whose death was pronounced a suicide, is especially bad. That's like all-bridges-burned, don't-call-even-on-Christmas bad.
Mayfield is also railing against NASCAR chairman Brian France, too, saying France's attempts to police drugs in NASCAR are "kind of like Al Capone talking about effective law enforcement."
We're not going to make any cracks about NASCAR, meth, and the various stereotypical demographics therein, but we will say this: Most rational people, people who don't use meth regularly, aren't usually so willing to completely crucify their stepmothers and bosses in the media. Jeremy Mayfield is on some sort of crusade here. Either he's a wronged man and NASCAR (and his stepmother) are out to get him -- maybe! -- or, you know, he should consider laying off the glass pipe for a little while. Just a thought.
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
