CUP: NASCAR, Evernham Dispute Mayfield Black-Flag Allegation

Sprint Cup

CUP: NASCAR, Evernham Dispute Mayfield Black-Flag Allegation

NASCAR denies that Chairman Brian France had Jeremy Mayfield black-flagged in the 2006 Brickyard 400...

Bob Pockrass | http://www.scenedaily.com | Posted October 07, 2010 Charlotte, NC

Brian France NASCAR Chairman and CEO. (Photo: Getty Images)

NASCAR says there is no evidence of a black flag issued to Jeremy Mayfield during the 2006 Brickyard 400 and that Ray Evernham, who owned the team Mayfield drove for at the time, was the one who ordered him to park his car during the race, according to a court filing Wednesday.

The filing came in response to Mayfled’s claim last week that NASCAR Chairman Brian France had him black-flagged in the race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Mayfield made that claim in asking U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen to reconsider a May 2010 ruling that dismissed his lawsuit against NASCAR over a May 1, 2009, drug test that NASCAR says was positive for methamphetamines.

The allegation surrounding the 2006 race at Indy comes in part from declarations of France’s former in-laws, whom France sued last year when trying to evict them from a home he owned.

“Mayfield has fabricated a story that in 2006 he was forced to exit the Brickyard 400 race because France, for no valid reason, had him ‘black-flagged,’” NASCAR wrote in its response. “There is, however, no record of any black flag that day, nor is there any record of a call during the race advising that Mayfield’s car was black-flagged. Mayfield knows full well that the black-flag story is false.”

NASCAR uses Mayfield’s 2006 lawsuit against then-team owner Evernham as corroborating evidence that the black-flag story is false. Mayfield filed suit in the days following the Indy race after Evernham fired him. In none of those documents does Mayfield say he was black-flagged by NASCAR.

Mayfield’s radio transmissions during the race, NASCAR said, show he was not happy with the car:

“I’m turning the wheel, and nothing happens,” Mayfield said, according to a NASCAR transcript of his radio communications. “It just goes straight now, and it ain’t a push. And then all of a sudden, it will try to come up under me. This ain’t about just tight or loose, there’s something [expletive] up up there.”

A couple of minutes later, Mayfield is told to park the car.

In affidavits filed with NASCAR’s response Wednesday, Evernham and then team director (crew chief) Chris Andrews said no one from NASCAR asked them to pull the car from the track.

“I was at that race, and at no time did anyone from NASCAR contact me during the race regarding Mayfield or the No. 19 Dodge or ask me to take Mayfield’s car off the track,” Evernham said in an affidavit filed by NASCAR. “I do not recall that NASCAR black-flagged Mayfield at any point during the race. I do not recall that anyone from NASCAR contacted me or anyone on the No. 19 Dodge crew during the race.”

Jeremy Mayfield was the first driver suspended under NASCAR’s random drug-testing policy. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Andrews said: “Ray Evernham directed me to pull the car from the race so that Mayfield did not tear up the car any more by wrecking it again.”

In affidavits filed by Mayfield, both of France’s former in-laws say that France, after drinking scotch while in California to be with his pregnant wife during the race, called NASCAR President Mike Helton in the control tower at Indy and asked that Mayfield be black-flagged. When Mayfield got to the pits no NASCAR official ever looked at the car, Mayfield alleges.

In its filing Wednesday, NASCAR produced travel records and hotel records indicating that France was in Orlando that day, not California.

The black flag allegations were the latest in the controversy surrounding Mayfield, who was indefinitely suspended from NASCAR on May 9, 2009. He sued NASCAR for breach of contract, discrimination and defamation in an attempt to return to racing and for financial damages. He won an injunction to participate in NASCAR in July 2009 but never returned to competition.

The injunction was later stayed, pending appeal, and Mayfield – the only driver suspended for violations of the substance-abuse policy since NASCAR implemented random drug testing in 2009 – eventually asked for the court to drop the injunction so the case could proceed more quickly toward trial. The judge dismissed Mayfield’s claims in May.

The 41-year-old Mayfield, who has 433 career starts with five Cup victories and two Chase championship appearances, has denied using methamphetamines and contends that the drug-test findings that prompted his suspension resulted from a combination of the prescription drug Adderall, which is used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and over-the-counter Claritin-D allergy medicine. He also argued that NASCAR must follow guidelines that regulate federal agencies.

NASCAR denied that Aegis Sciences Corp., which conducts the sanctioning body’s drug-testing program, must follow those regulations, and Mullen agreed in his ruling in May. Mullen also ruled in May that Mayfield had given up his right to sue on a variety of issues because of waivers he had signed with NASCAR in order to compete.

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