ESPN Sprint Cup

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Denial, denial, denial.

That's how Charles E. Yesalis, a Penn State health policy professor and sports drug expert, describes NASCAR's mind-set when it comes to the belief that it doesn't need a more stringent drug-testing program.

"Every sport organization, and I've been doing this for almost 30 years, has been at one point or another in a period of denial," said Yesalis, who has testified six times on Capitol Hill for issues involving drugs and steroids in sports. "The NCAA. The NFL. The Olympics. You name it. Hell, the NCAA and NFL are still beating that crap.

"Every organization has used that flimsy excuse that it's a problem in other sports, not ours. Good management tends to be proactive rather than reactive."

The subject of drug testing recently resurfaced when Craftsman Truck Series driver Aaron Fike was arrested and charged with possession of heroin and drug abuse instruments, which led to his indefinite suspension by NASCAR.

That sparked a strong reaction last weekend from Nextel Cup drivers Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, who called for the governing body to test everybody randomly at least twice a year instead of on reasonable suspicion, as the current policy states.

"I think we owe it to the sponsors and the fans to 100 percent know that this is a clean environment," Harvick said. "It would eliminate a lot of those problems of the younger drivers that disrespect the sport and the system.

"Shame on NASCAR for not policing our garage better than what they police it right now."

NASCAR instituted a "zero tolerance" drug policy in 1988 after driver Tim Richmond, the first driver tested for drugs, refused to give his complete medical records to the governing body.

Only five drivers -- Brian Rose and Tyler Walker of the Truck Series, Shane Hmiel and Kevin Grubb in Busch, and Sammy Potashnick in the Winston West Series -- are known to have tested positive over the past five years.

Only six drivers -- including Hmiel, who has failed three tests -- have been suspended since '88.

NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said the system in place is one of the best in sports.

"I know Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick both said we should do random testing," he said. "When somebody says that they're implying that we've got a problem, and I don't think we have a problem.

"Our policy is strong. We wouldn't hesitate to test anyone and we haven't. I just don't see us changing that policy."

Yesalis believes NASCAR's policy should be changed. He said officials would be smart to turn the entire testing program over to the World Anti-Doping Agency to avoid the scrutiny other sports are under.

"To look the other way, to pretend that it's not happening is one issue," he said. "But when you have drugs that can dramatically alter behavior when an individual is driving at a high speed and others are at risk, when drugs alter perception in a tiny way that could be deadly or very harmful at least, to me it's a no-brainer."

Under the current policy, drivers undergo a physical exam at the beginning of each season and sign an agreement that says they are subject to testing under reasonable suspicion.

The policy does not call for steroid testing and NASCAR officials declined to comment on how many tests are done per year. The last reported figure was 40 tests in 2005.

"When we sense we have a problem, then we start trying to figure out how to fix it," Hunter said. "With all the attention on steroids right now, we've definitely had some discussions on steroids.

"And quite frankly, we've had some discussions on random testing."

Yesalis, a former sports trainer and open-wheel driver, fears NASCAR will one day find itself attacking drug testing the way it did safety after the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001.

"If there was some tragedy and all of a sudden somebody does something goofy on the track or somebody gets hurt and somebody is implicated that caused the accident to have drugs in their body, that would cause a helluva big stink," he said.

"A good analogy would be dragging their feet on the HANS [head and neck restraint that now is mandatory] and other safety breakthroughs. What finally triggered it was to lose the sport's biggest star."

The Indy Racing League reportedly tests drivers every other weekend based on confidential and random rotation. Other motorsports leagues also have more stringent policies.

That Fike fell through the cracks is enough for some to insist NASCAR's policy needs improving.

"Obviously, it doesn't work because we've had a couple [of cases] here in the last three years," team owner Ray Evernham said. "We don't need that kind of reputation in this sport, and I would 100 percent support them if they got tougher on it.

"The point is, even if there is 1 percent it needs to be handled because it should be zero."

NASCAR argues that because drivers and crew members work so closely with each other and with officials that the chances of a violator not being reported are slim.

"In the policy itself there are all sorts of things -- change in behavior, droopy eyes -- that are very obvious, and if somebody is acting pretty strange we wouldn't hesitate to test them," Hunter said.

But there are some in the garage who indicated Fike showed those signs.

"I think that's garage-area gossip," Hunter said. "It's piling on. I cannot imagine if somebody thinks somebody is doing something with drugs and not saying something about it.

"Because that's the basis of the policy. And who better to police themselves but the athlete?"

Tony Eury Jr., the crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr., said it would be difficult to turn somebody in unless "they are really bad off."

"There's too much involved in that," he said. "A lot of people don't want to get tied up in somebody else's business, but if it got really big somebody probably would say something."

But for the sake of making the sport "seem it's a good place to be," Eury would like to see a more stringent policy.

"You've got so much at stake with the sponsors, the amount of money that is being paid in this garage, that you don't need that kind of business around here," he said. "I'd like to see [testing] as much as possible, whether it's twice a year or whatever."

Evernham said if a driver can be weighed twice a year -- NASCAR mandates this to make sure every car weighs the same with the driver aboard -- then it surely can test.

"You can't really do it on suspicion," said Evernham, who like most owners tests for drugs when hiring new employees. "It's gotta be random. We have random tests throughout the year [at Evernham Motorsports]. If we have a suspicion, we'll grab four or five people."

Robbie Loomis, the vice president for motorsports at Petty Enterprises, agreed.

"If you're gonna do random testing, you can't just do the ones you think are doing it," he said. "You've got to do a lot of them. It's like Burton said, check all of them at once.

"It can only help, not only for sponsors and keeping the sport healthy, but it almost makes you more responsible as a driver, crewman or person because you know at any time you can be randomly tested."

Testing for steroids brings up another debate. Al Shuford, a certified athletics trainer at Joe Gibbs Racing who has been around steroids in the NFL and professional baseball, says steroids would be of little or no value to pit crew members and drivers.

He says steroids are more for long-term performance enhancement and not the short-term performances of a pit stop that averages between 13 and 18 seconds.

Testing for steroids also could be cost-prohibitive at $125 a pop.

Yesalis argues steroids would enhance the performance of a pit crew member such as a tire carrier who relies on strength and speed. He noted that Olympic sprinters are known to use steroids to improve a 10-to-20 second burst.

"If a guy can pick up a tire like we do a softball, all things being equal, who is going to change that tire more quickly?" Yesalis said. "Who is more likely to drop it? Who is more likely to stumble?

"The NFL works on a boost of six seconds and their players have been using steroids the last 50 years. When somebody says that it is just plain silly."

People such as Eury and Loomis who work closely with crew members say they've never seen firsthand evidence of steroids.

"Let me say this," Loomis said. "I don't know if they are, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were."

Yesalis said NASCAR is no different than the PGA Tour, where there's the perception drugs and steroids aren't an issue. But on the eve of the British Open this week, golf legend Gary Player said he knew of at least one golfer who used steroids.

"And somebody else told me something I also promised I wouldn't tell, that verified others had done it," the Hall of Famer said.

"We're dreaming if we think it's not going to come into golf. I know there are golfers doing it, whether it's HGH, whether it's creatine, or whether it's steroids. … The greatest thing the R&A, the USGA and PGA can do is have tests at random. It's absolutely essential that we do that."

Brian Foree, a former trainer and pit crew coach at Evernham Motorsports, said he never saw drug use during his four years in the industry.

But as a person who has worked in other professional sports, he believes drug testing on a regular basis is a must.

"Randomly, unscheduled as well as scheduled and do it for all people in garage, anybody that has hard card," he said. "They need to do it all across the board if they want to be a big league sport and get the total confidence of the public, because the public eventually will care about whether this sport is clean or not."

Yesalis agreed, saying sports that don't have strict policies are setting themselves up for trouble.

"All NASCAR is doing is behaving like every sport organization has behaved," he said. "Deny, deny, deny, deny until they're backed in a corner and get embarrassed into doing something."

David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.