Notes: Harvick in favor of strong drug-testing policy

JOLIET, Ill. -- Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, insisted on Friday that NASCAR needs to establish a stronger drug-testing program.

Harvick was asked about the recent news that Truck Series driver Aaron Fike had been arrested on suspicion of possessing heroin and the tools necessary to use the highly addictive and dangerous drug. Fike since has been suspended indefinitely, pending an investigation. (read more)

"Here's how I feel about the whole thing: I believe every driver and every national series should be drug-tested a couple times a year randomly, regardless of who you are or what you're doing," Harvick said. "I think we owe it to the sponsors and the fans to 100 percent know that this is a clean environment.

"It would eliminate a lot of those problems of the younger guys that disrespect the sport and the system. Shame on NASCAR for not policing our garage better than what they police it right now. I think we're all professional athletes and should be treated like professional athletes in other professional sports -- and shame on them for not doing that."

The current drug policy in NASCAR is to test participants only when reasonable suspicion of illegal activity is suspected, although that can be done to anyone at any time.

"There is a random testing policy that we all sign at the beginning of every year, where they can drug-test us at any time," Harvick said.

He doesn't think it is enough, and he would like to see NASCAR do more completely random testing.

"I don't think it's necessarily a problem, but I think there would be zero speculation [with more testing], and speculation is not something that should drive anything in our garage," Harvick said. "I don't believe we have a huge problem, but it's still the black eye of the one or two guys that do have a problem. That just kind of frustrates me a little bit.

"There should be a couple times a year where guys are tested. Everybody should be on guard all the time. For those of us who have no interest in even really looking to find a party scene or anything like that, I just think it would be good for the sport if they just cleared the air."

Moving on

Drivers Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth said they both have put last year's incident at Chicagoland Speedway, when Gordon tapped Kenseth from behind and spent him spinning in the closing laps, far behind them. The move, which Gordon always has insisted was unintentional, allowed Gordon to go on to win the Nextel Cup race.

"Nobody ever forgets those things, but I think we put our differences behind us and we've been racing clean and hard and have had some great battles since last year. So we have no issues," Gordon said. "What I want to do [in this Sunday's USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland] is go out and have a car like we had last year, as competitive as that one was -- and hopefully it's Matt but whoever it is, go out there and make a clean pass on him for the win and get us another victory here." (watch video)

Kenseth said he's just looking forward to racing at the track that isn't far from his hometown of Cambridge, Wis.

"It kind of feels like home, coming up here," Kenseth said. "This track is real wide ... so I think there will be two good grooves and the racing will be good."

Team meeting

Before Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin could take to the track for final Nextel Cup practice, the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers had to attend to some business. Team owner Joe Gibbs made a rare Saturday appearance at the racetrack, and met with his drivers in Hamlin's No. 11 hauler prior to Happy Hour at Chicagoland Speedway.

Coach intervenes

The boss had some words for Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin on Saturday after Hamlin spoke out against his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate on Friday.

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Stewart and Hamlin both missed about the first 20 minutes of final practice because of the meeting. None of the particulars stuck around long enough to talk to the media about the meeting, likely a result of comments both drivers made after they were involved in an accident last weekend at Daytona International Speedway. Stewart appeared to cause the accident by hitting Hamlin from behind, but later claimed his teammate wouldn't get out of the way, and had even tried to wreck him in practice a day earlier.

Stewart left a telephone message for Hamlin in the days immediately following the accident, but his teammate refused to return it. "Even if it had been a situation where I would have wrecked him from behind," a clearly unhappy Hamlin said Friday, "he still shouldn't have thrown me as far under the bus as he did."

Um, easy Mark

Driver Mark Martin spun out and clipped the wall with the rear of his No. 01 Chevrolet coming off Turn 2 during Saturday's first Nextel Cup practice session at Chicagoland. The mishap forced him to a backup car and sent him to the rear of the field for the start of Sunday's race after he had taken great pains to qualify in the fourth position, which made him sick.

"It's just absolutely inexcusable," Martin said. "The U.S. Army team built me one of the best cars I've ever had in my life and there is just no excuse for me letting that happen. I'll probably never get over it as long as I live."

Martin said his crew made a change to the shocks package on the car, which was a new chassis. But he said none of that should have mattered that much.

"I've never really seen a shock change make that much of a difference, but that should not have happened," he said.

Roush improvement

Less than 12 hours after complaining about being too slow in practice, driver Greg Biffle of the No. 16 Ford posted the sixth-fastest time in Saturday's first practice. It was part of an overall resurgence of the five Roush Fenway Cup teams, all of which posted practice times in the top 15 after struggling as a group during Friday's practice and Bud Pole Qualifying. (read more)

"We're looking at 20-lap runs," Biffle said. "At about four laps, it starts to push on corner exit -- so we need to work on that and get that part better. That's what we're talking about: how to keep from grinding so much balance off, keep the transition out of it and keep the car going at those speeds. That's the key."

Roush Fenway Racing teams posted the top two times in the Saturday morning practice, with Carl Edwards in his No. 99 Ford being first and Kenseth in his No. 17 Ford second. Kenseth qualified 10th on Friday, but Edwards qualified 25th and Biffle 33rd. The other Roush Fenway cars -- the No. 6 of rookie David Ragan and the No. 26 of Jamie McMurray -- qualified 32nd and 34th, respectively.

David Caraviello contributed to this report.