Makes you cringe, and worry for the men racing alongside such drivers at breakneck speeds.

Sprint Cup driver Jeremy Mayfield was suspended indefinitely on Saturday May 9, 2009. In addition Tony Martin and Ben Williams (both crew members for other teams) were suspended at Darlington International Speedway for the same reason: substance abuse.

According to the 2009 NASCAR rule book, violators of section 12-1, which involves “actions detrimental to stock car racing”, and section 7-5, which involves “violation of the NASCAR substance abuse policy”, are subject to immediate suspension. Both of these aforementioned reasons pertained to the suspension of the three men listed above.

In a very similar but unrelated note, Kevin Grubb was suspended in 2006 for substance abuse as well. Unfortunately, Grubb was found dead Wednesday May 6, 2009,  in a hotel room in Richmond, Virginia. Grubb was only 31 years old and was discovered with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Early investigations state that Grubb committed suicide, and no further evidence of drugs was found at the crime scene. Toxicology tests are being done to locate any substances within Grubb’s body at the time of death, but the test results may take up to six weeks.

Grubb was suspended twice. The original suspension was for substance abuse, and the following suspension was given after he refused a drug test upon return. NASCAR then suspended Grubb indefinitely without further notice.

It is extremely unfortunate that such a good man was led down the wrong path by something so mundane as substance abuse. My condolences and heart go out to Grubb’s wife and family for their loss, and I hope that somehow Grubb has found peace with himself.

I can’t help but feel like something must be done about the outbreak of substance abuse within NASCAR. Sorry, baseball fans, but I believe personally that this matter is much more important than ‘roid rage. There are no 120 mph, 3,400 pound vehicles screaming around a track in baseball, just juiced up ball players smacking balls and running around in diamonds.

On November 12th, he was honored for his incredible achievements at the location of a brand new race-car museum in Philadelphia. On the that same day Andretti also was awarded the first ever “Spirit of Competition” award, which included a plaque adorned with a complete replica of a competition driving license of Andretti’s ultimate idol, Alberto Ascari.

The museum, the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum, features an extreme collection of rare automobile racing paraphernalia that had a severe impact on the history of racing. The museum also houses over 60 of the most important race cars in racing history in the entire world. It officially opened in June 2008, but the museum owners hope this particular event will bring more fans flocking to view the collection of displays.

As a tribute to Andretti, an old 1948 Hudson was painted to look like Andretti’s first American race car and was put on exhibit. The Hudson is outlined in a bright, fire engine red and is adorned with a white racing stripe and Andretti’s first racing number in bold white, the number 7.

The actual ceremony was presented by former Philadelphia Eagles coach Dick Vermeil, who also brought along an older sprint racing car that had been driven by his father years prior in certain Northern California races.

In addition to the Andretti race car model, another automotive was put on display at the same time- a racing auto built by a group of Philadelphia students for the Automotive X-Prize competition. The competition was held in February of 2008. Sponsored by Progressive auto insurance, the competition is dedicated to the production of a new energy efficient automobile.

Everyone should tip their hats in tribute to the great Mario Andretti and pay a visit at some point in time to the very interesting Philadelphia museum.

The U.S. Express is the successor to the great Cannonball Run, a race across the US continent that took place in the 1970’s. The Cannonball Run later had a movie created in its name, as most know, that was put together by Brock Yates; an early participant who then dropped out upon making the film. Rick Doherty, who had done the Cannonball Run with Yates, decided to get the race back together under a different name.

Will Wright ended up partnering with Doherty for the race, which they later won, placing in first with a time of 33 hours and 9 minutes. They ran the race with a small Mazda RX-7 coupe that they in turn modified in order to participate. They added a larger fuel cell canister that would disperse fuel into the original fuel tank when they were low and also added a couple radar detectors, a CB radio, a police scanner, night vision devices and a driver/co-driver communication system.

Wright claimed they tried out the night vision goggles once during the whole run and quickly discarded the idea.

“We tried driving with the lights off in the Mojave Desert, but … driving with the wheel in one hand, goggles in the other scared the crap out of me,” he says.

Wright also claims that during that long period of time while racing a driver and their car become one.

“The thing about driving and racing is the fact that you have this incredible interface between the person and machine. A lot of times there is a boundary that is put up between a person and their tools, technologies and machines. But when you’re driving, or racing especially, that boundary starts to blur and you become one. You start thinking about your body entirely and you think about the car as your body. For instance if you have an accident you don’t say oh my car got in an accident or my car hit something, you say I hit something or I got in an accident because the car in some sense becomes your body.”

If you answered yes to any of these questions, the Drag Times is the perfect site for you!

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