Full Throttle

Well the expected happened, at least expected from this corner of the blogoracingsphere, Carl Edwards has signed what he calls a multi-year contact with Roush-Fenway Racing.

Jack in the Hat’s other unsigned driver Greg Biffle says he’s happy, wants to win and what the hell there’s no greener grass to be found and expects to resign with Jack.

That has been expected also, when you’re already driving for one of the top teams in the sport, a team that’s so closely aligned with Ford’s engineering and financial support that’s it’s rumored Jack has a Blue Oval for a bed headboard, why move?

If Biffle wants “greener” he’ll get it right where he’s at, a larger pile of green cash.

Now, please take a minute and enter Full Throttle’s Wayback Machine. It won’t hurt, much… I promise.

Not too far in the distant past the following words were uttered by various NASCAR Suits on the subject of the sanctioning bodies drug policy.

“Sometimes people have told us, ‘I don’t mind being tested. I’ll comply with your policy, but just the idea if you said you tested me this weekend it might imply there was some problem with me and I don’t have a problem. Happy to do it, happy to test, but we all know guilt by association.’ - Brian France.

“NASCAR’s policy is also supported by the various policies that the teams have in place that are required under the driver/owner agreements. No system is flawless, but we believe our zero tolerant policy that is in place has served the sport well.” - Kerry Tharp, NASCAR’s director of communication.

And on and on it went argumentum ad infinitum until every known Suit had his/her words quoted in suppport of the current policy.

The only missing personality was Big Bill France himself but only because they were too damn cheap to pay a psychic medium to contact him.

That was then. (The Wayback Machine didn’t hurt a bit did it? Never mind the buzzing in your ears - ed)

This in now, now it’s, “Can We all Just Fagetaboutit!”

“There is a small group looking at this issue [drug policy]. We need to enhance what we have,” said NASCAR vice president Jim Hunter.

“We don’t think there is any drug policy in sports today that is any stronger than ours. (ahem, BS - ed) “There is a sensitivity with us that when you test and you tell people you are testing, it gives people the perception that there’s a problem that may not be there. We don’t like that.”

“We’ve got to put away any doubt that there is anyone participating who is using a banned substance,” Hunter said.

“When our drivers say, ‘I’ve never been tested,’ that leaves drivers with a perception of a problem and leaves us with a perception of a problem.”

Do ya mean these three, three of your biggest stars that jerked all of ya by the short hairs and changed what NASCAR believed to be a perception of a problem into a full blown “not going away” REAL problem?

I getcha now, all it takes is the not so dull roar of the top stars of the sport and a much larger roar heard from members of NASCAR Nation to get your butts off the sedentary and at least look at the problem.

Well, at least it’s a start, it will be interesting to see where The Suits go with it.

Technorati Tags: Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Roush Fenway Racing, NASCAR, Brian France, Jack Roush, Full Throttle