AJ Allmendinger Failed NASCAR's Random Drug Test

I've been out for a while, while I've been recouping from shoulder surgery but today while lounging about the park, waiting for NASCAR's Coke Zero 400 to start, I was checking my NASCAR Twitter feed and was shocked to see odd references to AJ Allmendinger and the word suspended in the same tweets.  Wha?  Further Twitter scanning showed the inevitable info backing up this weird combination of words.

Sure enough, AJ was ousted from the track as results from a random drug test earlier in the week came down the pipe.

I've always enjoyed his personality in his interviews and grimaced at his lack of decent luck or robust success.  And when he landed the No. 22 ride, I was jazzed for him.

I've not know these drug tests to be wrong... well, except per Jeremy Mayfield... so I'm not holding my breath, but I do hope that just maybe, something is wrong with the test.  But if this is true, then damn it, dude, you know testing can come any second. 

If not, well, character marketing was definitely at work and I liked the guy.  But I didn't really know him.  Do we ever know anyone in the limelight except for what image they present to the fans?  Carl Edwards has become the master image man.  From spending a season wreaking havoc on Brad Keselowski every chance he had, and then, to be the fans' driver and running into the stands to share his victories is nothing but a masterful swipe of the image machine.  And I do believe it is working to erase the negative image some fans had of him.  Folks are quick to forget as they live in the moment.  And sometimes, the moment is not the exact truth it needs to be.

But that's just me, and I tend to spend too much of my time remembering and harboring suspicions.

Below is the press release that came out of NASCAR about suspending A.J. Allmendinger.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 7, 2012) – Driver AJ Allmendinger has been temporarily suspended from NASCAR competition based upon notification of a positive "A" test NASCAR received from the Medical Review Officer as stated in Section 19-11B (6,7) of the NASCAR Substance Abuse Policy. Pursuant to the rule book, Allmendinger has the opportunity to request within the next 72 hours that his "B" sample be tested.

NASCAR will follow its policies and procedures set forth in the rule book in dealing with this matter.

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