Addressing a drug problem that is not a problem at all (cont'd)

In each of those sports, the athlete can clearly benefit through the use of a performance-enhancing drug. Not so in NASCAR, where the raw skills are all bundled in reflex and nerve. Harvick can take all the tetrahydrogestrinone he wants, and it's not going to help him with the Sprint Cup title.

It's completely understandable that the specter of street drugs can cause nervousness and apprehension among athletes who compete in 3,450-pound vehicles traveling at speeds approaching 200 mph. It's incredibly impressive that virtually every top driver voiced support for random testing, a stance that shows what being a sports role model is all about. But it's also an obvious overreaction to see one kid arrested for doing drugs, and deduce that an entire sport has a problem when there's simply no evidence to support it. In 60 years of competition, with 123 drivers competing weekly in three national divisions, NASCAR has suspended fewer than 10 drivers for substance-abuse violations. It's laudable that drivers are so willing to root out the problem. But there's no problem to root out.

Several top drivers on NASCAR's premier circuit voiced support for a change in NASCAR's drug testing policy.

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• Helton defends drug policy

Yet Fike wants NASCAR to toughen its drug policy. Of course he does. He has to. He avoided jail time by promising a judge in Warren County, Ohio, that he'd preach an anti-drug message. In return, prosecutors agreed to reduce his felony heroin possession charge to a misdemeanor, and sentenced him to two years' probation. A convicted drug user speaking out against NASCAR's drug policy, when he has to speak out against drugs to stay out of jail? It comes across as a bit self-serving, to say the least.

This isn't the safety crisis, which was painfully obvious in accidents like the one that injured Ernie Irvan and killed John Nemechek, a brewing storm anyone could see coming long before the disastrous events of 2000 and 2001. There's so little outside concern over drugs in NASCAR that when Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns proposed a 2005 bill that would have standardized drug testing in professional sports, the auto racing series wasn't included. The ill-fated Drug Free Sports Act would have covered only the NFL, NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and Arena Football League. Nobody was summoning Mike Helton to Capitol Hill.

If drivers want more stringent drug testing, they need to take those concerns to their team owners, and take part in whatever screenings an organization like Hendrick Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing conducts of its other employees. You want league-wide random testing? All right, then be prepared for something like what players are subjected to in the NFL -- a humiliating procedure in which subjects providing a urine sample must remove their shirts, pull their pants down to their knees, and be observed from the front to eliminate any chance of tampering. That's the real world of drug testing, one drivers might be a little more hesitant to embrace.

On its own, the fact that so many drivers seem willing to submit to random testing should make it obvious that the participants in this sport have nothing to hide. We're not talking about the NFL, where Ricky Williams was banned for marijuana use and then let back into the sport. We're not talking about Major League Baseball, where Steve Howe was suspended seven times. We're not talking about the NBA, a revolving door of misdemeanor drug charges. Want to find the drug users in NASCAR? They're racing in other, smaller series after being kicked out of the big show. In that regard, NASCAR has the toughest drug policy of them all.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.