Mike Brudenell: Drugs dangerous in motor sports

I'm not convinced that some of the big performances in swimming at the London Olympics last week weren't tainted.

Call me Mr. Overly Suspicious, but a Chinese competitor improving 5 seconds in her event in 12 months seems, well, incredible to me, as were other performances in the pool from some nontraditional swimming nations.

But juicing in motor sports -- it shocks the socks off me.

I have no idea what AJ Allmendinger, who was suspended by NASCAR and fired by Penske Racing on Wednesday for failing a drug test, was really on -- if anything -- by the standards of "hard" drugs.

I like the "Dinger," and I was floored when Sam Hornish Jr. had to replace him before the July 7 Sprint Cup race at Daytona, when NASCAR got the results of a random drug test done on Allmendinger.

I also enjoyed interviewing Jeremy Mayfield, who was permanently suspended by NASCAR in 2009 for taking methamphetamines.

Add to this the sad cases of Shane Hmiel, who was suspended three times for failing drug tests and eventually banned for life by NASCAR, only to be paralyzed in 2010 in a USAC Silver Crown crash; Kevin Grubb, who failed or refused tests in 2004-06 and committed suicide in a hotel room in Virginia in 2009; and former driver/crewman Randy Lajoie, who was suspended in 2010 for smoking marijuana and later reinstated.

In the pool or on the track, an athlete can cream the field by using performance-enhancing drugs. An athlete may cheat, but the only one who usually suffers the consequences in the end is that person.

It's bad, it's wrong, it's cowardly, and it's a slap in the face to those who have trained a lifetime and stayed clean to win a race or medal.

But on a high-speed oval -- it's a whole lot more serious.

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Mike Brudenell: Drugs dangerous in motor sports