The NHRA is cracking down in a big way on substance abuse in 2012, spreading its policy on drug and alcohol use beyond the competitors on the racetrack to those that have direct involvement with the race teams and even NHRA officials and employees themselves.
As outlined in the Administrative Procedures & Appeals section of the 2012 NHRA rulebook, the substance abuse policy will apply to all “covered individuals,” who are subject to and must comply with the NHRA’s substance abuse policy. These “covered individuals” include anyone who holds or applies for a competition license, all non-licensed competitors, crew chiefs and crew members of any race team, all team owners that are on site and participate in the preparation or operation of the race car, and all NHRA officials and employees in safety sensitive positions. As those on the internet message boards have joked, only the fans and the night janitors have been left out and they might be next.
As with virtually any employer, the NHRA’s substance abuse testing is performed on a random-selection or reasonable-suspicion basis, with a complete set of protocols for completing the process in a timely manner.
Unlike in big league sports, the substance abuse testing in NHRA drag racing is largely transparent to the public eye, but it gained major headlines in 2010, when Pro Stock frontrunner Allen Johnson was disqualified from competition at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Nationals in Charlotte for failing a zero-tolerance alcohol breath analyzer test, and again in early 2011 when Top Fuel racer Mike Strasburg was suspended for a period of one year for failing to submit to a random drug test in the allotted time frame at the SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas in April.
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