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As I sat here this evening trying to decide what I was going to write about I couldn’t help but think of the almost daily bad news coming down on Jeremy Mayfield. Now I’m not going to talk about his guilt or innocence here. It is frankly irrelevant to the post. But I thought it might be interesting to look at what Mayfield is now facing.

On May 9 Jeremy Mayfield was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for failing a drug test administered to him at Richmond. NASCAR refused to name the drug/s Mayfield tested positive for.

As the week progressed Mayfield claimed he failed the test over a mixture of Claritin-D and a prescription drug. NASCAR drug test administrator Dr. David Black of Aegis Sciences Corporation said that was impossible.

Fast forward, Mayfield and attorney Bill Diehl filed suit against NASCAR seeking among other things a temporary restraining order that would allow Mayfield to compete. A Mecklenburg County judge heard the case May 29. He denied Mayfield’s request. During the hearing we learned the driver was taking Adderall for ADHD and Claritin-D. According to NASCAR there was a third drug they did not name. Mayfield’s attorneys did not submit the toxicology report.

Prior to bringing the case before a Mecklenburg County judge the following week NASCAR requested the case be moved to Federal Court. The request was granted.

On June 5, NASCAR countersued Mayfield in Federal Court claiming willful violation of the substance abuse policy, breach of contract, and defrauding competitors of earnings. The suit claims Mayfield failed to notify Dr. David Black of his change in prescriptions in accordance with the drug policy and also that he defrauded his fellow competitors of $150,000.

ESPN the Magazine’s Ryan McGee, reported on June 9 that he had confirmed with two independent sources that the illegal drug Mayfield tested positive for was Methamphetamine. This allegedly was the third drug that showed up on Mayfield’s failed test.

This week chassis and engine builder Triad Racing Technologies filed suit in North Carolina Superior Court against Jeremy Mayfield Motorsports for $86,000. They claim they were not paid for parts and services rendered.

On top of this, NASCAR filed a motion in federal court on Tuesday alleging the expert witness used in Mayfield’s lawsuit lied about his credentials. Among other things NASCAR claims Dr. Harvey MacFenerstein did not have medical degrees or certifications he claimed to have. MacFenerstein claims he told Mayfield attorney John Buric the qualifications listed in the affidavit were incorrect and Buric assured him they would be corrected. NASCAR is asking for reimbursement in defending itself against Mayfield, that MacFenerstein’s testimony be dismissed, and that Mayfield’s attorney’s be sanctioned for failing to conduct a reasonable inquiry into MacFenerstein’s credentials.

Now I’m no legal expert, but I think it’s fair to say Mayfield is in it up to his neck. He has one lawsuit against NASCAR (which looks now to be on very shaky legs) and two separate lawsuits against him. Not to mention Mayfield’s means for making money has been cut off. On top of this he is financing a legal team headed by Bill Diehl which I can tell you is not cheap.

They say hindsight is 20/20 and I’m guessing Mayfield is beginning to wish he hadn’t taken on NASCAR. This is a company that has its own legal department with half a dozen+ attorneys. On top of their own team working on this they have Winston-Salem attorney Paul Hendrick and his team. Also working in NASCAR’s favor is their unendingly deep pockets. They can afford to drag this case and their own case out for months. I highly doubt Mayfield can.

Long story short, I’m glad I’m not Jeremy Mayfield.

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I think I should probably just start a problem series. I have been writing about it a lot lately. But I digress…

At the beginning of the season many in the media would have had you believing the world was crashing in on us. They were predicting empty race tracks, fleeing sponsors and failing teams.

Well six months into the year and four months into the season, things aren’t quite as bad as many predicted. Sure a couple teams have folded (the No. 8 car and No. 28 car), the independents are starting to struggle, and sponsors aren’t quite clamoring to spend tens of millions of dollars in the sport, but are things really that bad?

For the last several months everyone has been screaming about television ratings. Yeah they’re down, but if you look at them compared to other sporting events and programming, the sport really isn’t doing too bad. I unfortunately don’t have easy access to the Nielsen ratings, so I am working with what I can find online, but consider this: an average NASCAR race (not the 500 or another big race) does just as well as the NBA Finals did last year. They averaged about 9 million viewers.

That number is also big enough to beat a lot of primetime programming on major networks (not including Greys Anatomy or CSI of course). It also beats the hell out of the top rated cable programming.

Take a look at some older Nielson ratings and compare it to NASCAR this year. They’re down, but they’re no means bad.

The Chicken Littles are also pointing to the down attendance at the tracks. Now if you take the track estimations and subtract 30 to 40,000 (which is probably closer to the truth at some of these places) they are still nothing to scoff at. Any sport would give anything to have 100,000+ fans at their events every week. NASCAR is crying about it.

Sure it’s not the sell-out crowds we got just a few years ago, but still it is very good. The Super Bowl this year had just over 71,000 in attendance. With the exception of some of the smaller tracks, NASCAR easily beats that week in and week out.

Now I know what you’re saying, if there was a football stadium big enough (the new Cowboys stadium perhaps) they would have NASCAR-like attendance for the Super Bowl and that’s probably true (NASCAR couldn’t hope to have the TV viewing audience though), but the fact that NASCAR does that good every week is a very good thing.

So now that we’ve established things really aren’t that bad, I ask you, what is different between this sport and others?

The answer is the negative media attention on the sport.

Baseball attendance has been down and NHL and IndyCar TV ratings have been mediocre on Versus, but you don’t hear their respective press corps bashing the sport. In fact it’s quite the opposite. I have read several stories about how positive everyone is about the Versus ratings despite the fact the ratings have been cut in half for some events and how MLB is looking forward to a jump in attendance once the summer hits.

I feel like this sky is falling mentality has created a very negative perception of the sport by not only the general public but by the fans. I think much of the anxiety fans are feeling and another reason why they aren’t tuning in is the fabricated negativity. When you are reading every other day about how bad things are, or how bad things are going to be you’re going to start to believe it. I know NASCAR is attempting to combat this, but they can only do so much.

Things aren’t quite as great as they have been in previous seasons, there is no denying that, but are things really that bad?