Several people in the NASCAR world were not pleased with Denny Hamlin during the Daytona 500 weekend after the No. 11 Toyota driver, while talking on the Pardon My Take podcast, said 70 percent of drivers are taking Adderall.
And that includes his fellow drivers, Kevin Harvick said Tuesday on his SiriusXM NASCAR Radio show, Happy Hours. Hamlin quickly recanted his comment and told reporters he was joking and there is “no fact behind” that figure.
Either way, Harvick said, “It still offended most everybody in the garage.”
Talking to his Happy Hours co-host Matt Yocum, Harvick said:
“Sometimes you can say things that you think are funny that really aren’t that funny. And I know that Denny said he was kind of making an off-the-cuff comment trying to be funny. But it really wasn’t that funny because I think as you look at the rest of the drivers and the people that are in the sport and understand the drug policy and understand the things that we go through on a weekly basis, it kind of made him seem a little bit out of touch with everything that’s actually going on in the sport.
“So not a very cool comment, and I don’t think anybody in the garage really appreciated having to answer the questions or deal with them. Sometimes, Denny, it’s better just to be quiet.”
Multiple people in the sport questioned Hamlin’s 70 percent assertion, and it even became the target of a joke from fellow driver Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., which helped fuel an ongoing disagreement between the two. After edging out Hamlin for second place behind first-time Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon, Wallace joked to FOX Sports that Hamlin “might need to take some Adderall for that one.”
In a statement, NASCAR reiterated its policy of regular and random drug testing, and without a prescription, amphetamines – like Adderall – are prohibited. NASCAR has a zero-tolerance policy and said it’s “confident” in its drug testing program.
“Those 70 percent of drivers that he referred to are mad because of the fact that you’re the guy sitting in the trailer doing the drug testing 10 or 12 times a year from a random standpoint and understanding the things you can and can’t do. And whether he thinks it was an off-the-cuff comment and something that he meant to say or not to say, it still offended most everybody in the garage.
“If you’re going to play around joking and think it’s not something that everybody is going to take offense to – and obviously, I think he’s probably seeing that nobody really appreciated it, and it put everybody in a bad spot.”
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