Maybe Jeremy Mayfield should have talked to Richard Gasquet before he mounted his public defense against NASCAR.
Race fans know the all too familiar story of Mayfield, who now has more positive tests for methamphetamine than he has Cup wins. The latest dagger to his career came this week when his stepmother signed an affidavit stating she had personally witnessed Mayfield using meth numerous times in recent years.
It seems now, barring a legal miracle, that Mayfield’s driving career is kaput. If he had only spoken to Gasquet, this might have already blown over.
The French tennis player, who’s had marginal professional success, was banned from competition before the French Open after a drug test revealed the presence of cocaine in his system. He was looking at a year’s ban at least from the International Tennis Federation.
Now word comes that Gasquet is being reinstated. Seems ITF officials are buying his story that he ingested the cocaine after kissing a complete stranger at a night club and that she was the one doing the drug.
Ah, the old “I-got-drugged-by-a-kiss” defense. Mayfield’s got to be kicking himself for not thinking about it first.
Lindsey Young is a sports writer at the Chattanooga Times Free Press who started work at the Chattanooga News-Free Press 24 years ago. He covers the Northwest Georgia prep beat and NASCAR. Lindsey’s hometown is Ringgold, Ga., and he graduated from Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School. He received an associate’s degree from Dalton Junior College (now Dalton State) and a bachelor’s degree in communications from UTC. He has won several writing awards, including two Tennessee Sports ...
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