ESPN Craftsman Truck Series

In a courtroom outside Cincinnati, Aaron Fike will stand for his first court hearing Thursday on charges of drug abuse and possession of drug paraphernalia.

No matter what a judge says, for Fike, the damage is already done.

In the wake of an arrest two weekends ago at a Cincinnati-area amusement park, where the 24-year-old Fike and his 21-year-old fiancée, Cassandra Davidson, were found in a sport utility vehicle with syringes and what police believed to be heroin, a promising Craftsman Truck Series season and young career were lost.

Again.

Not quite two months after Tyler Walker, 28, was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for violating its substance abuse policy, Fike received the same penalty from the sanctioning body.

Fike, who led the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings and was eighth in points for the No. 1 Toyota of Red Horse Racing, turned in a career-best fifth in his last race, June 30 at Memphis Motorsports Park. Off the track, there had been nothing to suspect any wrongdoing, according to NASCAR, which does not mandate regular testing.

"Our testing policy is reasonable suspicion, and we had no reason, no complaints or no visible evidence of him being impaired. No one had told us that something's wrong with him," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president of corporate communication.

Fike's suspension triggered discussion about drug-testing policies and prompted high-profile Cup drivers such as Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton to call for regular tests of all competitors. It's now a hot-button issue.

"I second the same idea [for testing]. We have to have a physical when we go to Daytona for the first race, I wouldn't have a problem with doing a test before that race, or before any race, or three, four random deals during the season," said Dennis Setzer, a 17-time CTS winner. "I guess NASCAR would have a better way to have suspicion, but how do you decide what suspicion is? It's hard to make that call; maybe it would be better to test everyone.

"NASCAR is such a great opportunity, to be in a driver's seat in any of these series. I worked 20 years at short tracks; some of these [younger] guys get in early. I hope they realize the opportunity they have."

Therein appears the bitter truth with Fike and Walker. Fike's status with Red Horse Racing remains uncertain (team owner and general manager Tom DeLoach declined comment through a spokesperson), and, according to Hunter, Fike would face a minimum one-year rehabilitation period before reinstatement could even be considered. Walker, 18th in points in his first full truck season at the time of his suspension, was terminated by Bill Davis Racing per the team's zero-tolerance policy on substance abuse.

Even without official league sanctions, drug problems are extremely difficult to overcome in racing. Ask Mike Skinner, the CTS points leader for BDR. His son, Jamie, made two truck starts before the age of 20 and had an inked ARCA car deal at 22 when an arrest for multiple drug charges in 2000 effectively ended his career at the sport's highest levels.

"He got caught up with the wrong crowd and paid for it," Skinner said. "He's still in racing -- he's a crew chief at a local short track and he still wins races, but he's still paying for it."

Believing that a teammate was heading down a similar path of trouble, Skinner pulled Walker aside in May.

"I sat down with Tyler and his father and had a good, long talk. Not that I had to, but sometimes I take my driver hat off and put my company hat back on," Skinner said. "I told him, 'You've got the world by the butt, you're a good little driver, you just need to basically marry this race car the next four or five years and you'll find yourself in a really good spot.'"

One week later, Walker was suspended.

"It made me feel like I wasted my breath," Skinner said.

Kvapil hit with 25-point penalty
Roush Fenway Racing's Travis Kvapil was penalized 25 points Wednesday by NASCAR after rules infractions were discovered in postrace inspection at Kentucky Speedway.

Kvapil finished second Saturday night behind Skinner in the Built Ford Tough 225, but his Ford F-150 failed to meet the minimum roof height requirement after the race. The 2003 series champion had been marching up the standings in the past two months with a string of top-10s, including two wins, but the points penalty dropped him out of a tie for third with Todd Bodine into fourth, 313 points behind Skinner.

Crew chief Mike Beam was fined $10,000, and Jack Roush was penalized 25 owner points.

Spare parts
Bill Lester ended a 27-race top-10 drought with an eighth-place finish at Kentucky. The Billy Ballew Motorsports driver missed the pole by .001 seconds in a Chevrolet. The top four qualifiers were .007 seconds apart. &3133; Jon Wood, racing for the first time since an illness sidelined him from his regular Busch car in May, finished sixth in the Wood Brothers/JTG Racing No. 21 Ford. That truck has posted top-10s with four drivers this season: Wood, Kelly Bires, Mark Martin and Stacy Compton.

John Schwarb is a freelance journalist covering motorsports and a contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at johnschwarb@yahoo.com.