Jeff Gordon has been tested three times this season under NASCAR's random drug-testing policy, which went into effect at the beginning of the year. Whenever he gets sick and has to take cold tablets or an antibiotic, he makes sure the medications come from a list he's already sent to NASCAR. If he has to take something not on that list, he forwards the information to the sanctioning body. Gordon feels there's no doubt that NASCAR knows everything in his system well before he's ever selected to take a test.

“

I don't know all the answers, but I would have to say that if two tests come back positive, yes, there needs to be an appeals process to verify whatever there is, but there's also a safety issue involved whether it's prescription or not.

”

-- GREG BIFFLE

And yet, given the ongoing legal battle between Jeremy Mayfield and NASCAR over the results of a disputed positive test for methamphetamine, each time Gordon has been tested, he's heard a little voice in the back of his head.

"Each time, you can't help but have a little feeling inside of you going, 'What is going to come out of this? I take an allergy pill, is that going do something?'" the four-time series champion asked. "You go through the year and you get a cold, and you might have more than a cold and take an antibiotic. To me, everything that I've taken or have been prescribed is on the list of things that I have given to them. If something new comes about, I give it to them. I feel like I have been open with them, so with testing, I feel like I am very well prepared to answer any questions that may arise from that."

Clearly, the drivers in the Sprint Cup garage are learning as they go through this first season with randomized drug testing, something competitors vouched for almost universally after former Truck Series driver Aaron Fike told a magazine last year that he sometimes used heroin on race weekends.

And the continued legal wrangling between Mayfield and NASCAR -- the sanctioning body has claimed that he's twice tested positive for methamphetamines, while the driver alleges that he's clean -- has placed NASCAR's entire drug-testing process, overseen by Dr. David Black of Nashville, Tenn.-based Aegis Labs, under scrutiny.

But one thing, it seems, has not changed. Despite the Mayfield controversy and the questions it sometimes poses, support for randomized drug testing among competitors appears as strong now as it ever has.

"I think random drug testing is a great idea. I don't question that whatsoever," Jeff Burton said. "As I said in February, if there are questions about it, then it will come up. I think that them asking questions about the way the process works is good. We should ask questions. We need to make sure that if someone tests positive or tests negative the test was administered correctly, that it's the right way to test. I believe we need to be looking at that. I have no concerns whatsoever going over and giving a test right now. I don't believe my results will be inaccurate." (Continued)