NASCAR: Witnesses Will Testify Against Mayfield

((HT: That's Racin'/St. Onge))

NASCAR has a “significant number” of witnesses who will testify that suspended driver Jeremy Mayfield ((PIctured, thanks NASCAR Images)) used methamphetamines, a NASCAR official said Monday.

The official said those witnesses would testify to recent and long-term use.

The official's remarks followed a court filing Monday by NASCAR attorneys in U.S. District Court. The filing asked U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen to lift an injunction he granted this month so Mayfield could return to racing.

Mayfield was suspended May 9 after a positive test for what NASCAR later identified as meth.

An appeals court last week put on hold Mullen's injunction, but Monday's filing is part of a larger lawsuit between NASCAR and Mayfield.

The NASCAR official declined to further characterize the witnesses to Mayfield's meth use, but in Monday's court filing, NASCAR attorneys said they were reluctant to testify after Mayfield angrily responded to similar testimony from his stepmother, Lisa Mayfield.

Jeremy Mayfield said Lisa Mayfield is “basically a whore” and accused her of killing his father, who died in 2007.

Attorneys say Mayfield apparently contacted one of the unnamed witnesses to convince her that despite her recollection, he never used drugs.

Mayfield continues to deny any methamphetamine use, his attorney John Buric said.

In the filing, NASCAR also asked Mullen to select an independent, third-party laboratory that could test a sample of Mayfield's urine.

Mayfield's attorneys have argued that he has tested negative for meth using the same sample that produced a positive NASCAR test, and that the positive NASCAR test might have come from a combination of allergy and other medication Mayfield was taking.

NASCAR attorneys have argued that Mayfield's lab did not use a test sophisticated enough to distinguish meth from those other medications.

Buric called NASCAR's request for a third-party lab “ridiculous.”

“There's clearly a process in place for this,” he said. “We think the rules require that we have the say in where our sample gets sent.”

Papers Filed In Mayfield Suit Claim Independent Test Negative- AGAIN!

((HT: CBSSports))

An independent drug test on Jeremy Mayfield was negative for methamphetamines, contradicting the results of a NASCAR test taken 40 minutes earlier, the driver claimed in court documents filed Tuesday ((the 41 car is pictured, again, thanks NASCAR Images)).

In response to NASCAR's claim that Mayfield again tested positive for methamphetamines on July 6, Mayfield submitted an affidavit to the U.S. District Court that said he traveled to Frye Regional Medical Center in Hickory, N.C., right after NASCAR collected a sample at his Catawba County home.

In a room he described as "very sterile," Mayfield said he emptied his pockets, washed his hands and was ushered into a bathroom, where he provided another urine sample.

Mayfield said in the court filing he received confirmation from Laboratory Corporation of America in Raleigh, N.C., that his sample was negative on July 10 -- the same day NASCAR informed his counsel that its sample was positive.

He said the results of his test are "consistent with my lifestyle as I have not and do not use or abuse methamphetamines.

"It is impossible for methamphetamine to be in my body as I have never consumed that substance."

Dr. Harold Schueler of the Broward County (Fla.) Medical Examiner's Office, filed an affidavit on behalf of Mayfield that claimed the levels of methamphetamine in NASCAR's test are "astronomical" and "could be remotely accurate, unless Mr. Mayfield was deceased or a chronic abuser."

The filing also denied accusations made last week by his estranged former stepmother, who said in her own affidavit she witnessed Mayfield use methamphetamines at least 30 times and that the driver cooked it himself until the ingredients became too hard to obtain. She also said she witnessed him use the drug at Darlington Raceway in 1999.

"I deny Lisa Mayfield's allegation that I used, cooked or purchased methamphetamines," Mayfield wrote. "Lisa Mayfield's assertion that I used methamphetamine just prior to the 1999 Darlington race is a lie. I finished second in the 1999 Darlington race."

There were two races at Darlington in 1999, and Mayfield finished second and third. Lisa Mayfield's affidavit, submitted last week by NASCAR, did not specify before which race she witnessed him using drugs.

Mayfield was suspended May 9 for failing a random drug test taken eight days earlier for what NASCAR has said was a positive test for methamphetamines. The driver sued, and a federal judge issued an injunction July 1 that lifted his suspension based on the argument that NASCAR's testing system is flawed.

NASCAR asked U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen last week to reverse the injunction based on new evidence -- the failed July 6 test and Lisa Mayfield's sworn testimony.

Mayfield's attorneys on Tuesday argued in their response that the July 6 test results -- positive or negative -- should not be taken into consideration because the case is about a failed May 1 test.

"This Court's preliminary injunction lifted a suspension for a drug test performed on May 1, 2009, the questionable circumstances surrounding which necessarily remain unchanged," they wrote.

Mayfield also disputed NASCAR's chronology of the July 6 testing sequence, in which the sanctioning body claims he delayed giving a sample for more than seven hours.

Although Mayfield attorney John Buric has said Mayfield submitted to an independent test during that seven-hour span, the only test results mentioned in Tuesday's filing are of the 9 p.m. trip to Frye Medical Center.

Buric did not immediately respond to a call and an e-mail from the Associated Press.

Mayfield said in his affidavit that he was at a lab waiting to be tested around 5 p.m. when NASCAR ordered him home to meet their collectors. His affidavit makes no mention of him actually giving a sample -- which Buric has said the driver was doing during the time NASCAR could not locate him for its own test.

Mayfield: Independent Lab Test Negative For Meth

((HT: WCNC/Michelle Boudin))

Jeremy Mayfield feels some sense of vindication.

“We’re very excited about the results,” he told NewsChannel 36 after an independent lab, LabCorp, sent results to Mayfield’s attorneys showing he tested negative for meth. Those results are from a urine sample he gave within an hour of giving a separate urine sample to NASCAR, though NASCAR's lab results claim Mayfield tested positive for the drug.

Asked how both tests can come back with two different results Mayfield says “That's what we’d like to know and that's what we’re gonna find out.”
Mayfield's attorney suggests NASCAR might be “spiking” the sample.

And Mayfield agrees. “It’s for sure a spiked sample,” he says.

Mayfield says his lawyers have had him tested repeatedly, and the only samples that have come up positive for meth are the ones NASCAR has tested.

“They are hell-bent on proving Jeremy Mayfield is wrong. They keep digging themselves a hole [and it] keeps getting bigger and bigger,” says John Buric who is representing Mayfield.

Mayfield says it’s just driving his goal to prove his innocence.

“I’m in this for the long haul. We’re gonna fight it out.”

Even though the veteran driver knows he'll never race again.

“I know better. Nobody's gonna touch me, it’s not gonna happen. Now that I don't have to worry about going back racing - because obviously they are not going to let me - I don't have to worry about what I say. It’s like the bully in school [who] got a hold of the wrong little guy.”

When asked for comment on the latest independent test results, NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston responded: "They seem to be light on details don't you think? It's all pretty transparent. We will continue to let real science and sworn affidavits do our talking.”

ESPN's Nicole Manske catches up with legal expert Roger Cossack about the fiasco

Mayfield Considers Selling Team

((HT: CBSSports))

Unable to find funding since his suspension for failing a random drug test, Jeremy Mayfield ((pictured, thanks NASCAR Images)) is considering selling his race team.

Shana Mayfield said Thursday she and her husband are considering selling their remaining inventory because they don't have the cash to field a race team. Mayfield transferred ownership of the No. 41 Toyota to his wife following his May 9 suspension.

"We are looking at all options at this point, since we cannot get sponsorship," Shana Mayfield said.

Jeremy Mayfield told ESPN earlier Thursday that he had a meeting scheduled with a potential buyer on Monday when NASCAR summoned him for a drug test. It was the first indication he might not bring Mayfield Motorsports back to the track.

A federal judge issued an injunction last week that lifted the indefinite suspension and allowed Mayfield to return to competition. But Mayfield has not traveled to the two races since the ruling.

NASCAR, which has said Mayfield tested positive for methamphetamines, has asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen's decision and impose the suspension.

Mayfield said after Mullen's ruling that he intended to travel to last weekend's race at Daytona International Speedway. He instead issued a statement hours before the start that said the tight turnaround left him unable to prepare a car in time to make it to Daytona.

He said he was "working around the clock" to get the team to Chicago.

"Shana and I, as well as everyone at Mayfield Motorsports, will do everything in our power to race next weekend."

John Buric, an attorney for Mayfield, said Mayfield won't make it to Chicago. He said the driver has been viewed as a "pariah" since his suspension and can't find sponsorship or a team owner willing to give him a ride. Without funding, Buric said Mayfield doesn't have the money to get his team up and running.

"You need employees, people to do the work for you, people to get the car to the track, food and lodging for the people you bring to the track," Buric said. "With no sponsor, that's not something he can do right now. Not when you are spending a ton of money on lawyers in a fight against NASCAR."

Mayfield said in an affidavit he's laid off 10 employees since the suspension, borrowed money from family and sold personal assets to meet his living expenses.

He's also being sued for $86,000 by Triad Racing Technologies for parts, pieces and chassis work he allegedly owes the company.

It's not clear what Mayfield has to offer a potential buyer. He only started his team in January and said at the season-opening Daytona 500 he only had 15 employees. He leases his shop space, and likely doesn't have anything to sell beyond cars and the points he earned from the 11 races he entered.

Shana Mayfield entered J.J. Yeley in the two races following Mayfield's suspension, but she has not sent the car to the six events since then.

ESPN's Nicole Manske caught up with Marty Smith on the "NASCAR Now" program to discuss Mayfield's interview with Smith on Thursday.

Mayfield had "all he can stands, he can't stands no more," thus the interview with Smith