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Before we delve too far into the Ron Hornaday performance-enhancing drug allegations, please let me state that I don't have a close personal relationship with the driver of the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Incorporated Chevy Silverado, but I don't think I've ever met a NASCAR driver as honest and open as the California native.
I also don't think there is a person in the NASCAR garage who feels differently.
So when an interview Hornaday did with ESPN The Magazine's Shaun Assael revealed that he had admitted to taking the testosterone cream Synthroid, I immediately thought: 'Well there must be a logical explanation for this.' "
And one day after the revelations were made public, it turns out there is such an explanation.
Anyone who knew Hornaday over the past 10 to 15 years could not help but notice a dramatic weight loss in the defending NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver in the past several seasons.
Rumours of some sort of illness abounded but Hornaday carried on as if nothing was wrong.
Finally team owner Kevin Harvick and his wife Delana became so concerned they intervened and took Hornaday to see their personal doctor.
I'll let Hornaday take the story from here as he relayed it yesterday at New Hampshire International Speedway where he was preparing for today's NCTS race.
"(The doctor) told me to take my hat off and felt my hair. He did all the blood work and all that stuff. When he called me ... he told me it was called Grave's Disease. I didn't know what it was.
"I asked if I could take care of it after the season and he said no, it was a life-and-death situation right now and that I needed to take care of it now.
"For four or five days they checked what you eat, you go that morning, that afternoon, that morning, that afternoon for three or four days. They give you a little pill; I don't know what it is called, nuclear something or another, when the nurse brought it in there, she opened up this little vial up and dropped the pill down my throat. I couldn't see my wife; she couldn't come around me for forty-eight hours, the whole deal.
"Now, I have to keep going back to the doctors, for two years, you have to go back every three months. Now I am every six months, I have to see the doctor, take blood work, then they prescribe the Synthroid. Sometimes you guys see me fat, sometimes you see me skinny. They are measuring how much my body does.
"I felt like I was chasing a ghost."
For Harvick's part, he said that what he did for Hornaday was more than just what an owner would do for a driver but something he would do for a friend.
"From a friend standpoint, when we saw Ron's health start to deteriorate, it's not about driving, it's about somebody's personal health," he said. "He was misdiagnosed twice. I told him. 'That's it. You're done until you figure out what's wrong.' "
In an era when professional athletes are considered guilty until proven innocent when it comes to drug use, Hornaday faced a horrible week.
Yesterday's revelations, however, should put the matter to rest.
NASCAR's information boss Jim Hunter certainly made that clear at NHIS as well.
"We don't see where Ron did anything wrong," Hunter said. "Our substance abuse experts have told us the prescription Ron Hornaday used did not enhance his performance or impair his judgment. It is our understanding Ron had a very serious health issue, which is continuing to be addressed."
RAIN HALTS QUALIFYING
Qualifying for tomorrow Sylvania 300 at Loudon, N.H. was washed out yesterday leaving the starting grid based on owner's points in the Sprint Cup series.
It marks the seventh time this season rain has cancelled qualifying. It means that Kyle Busch will start on the inside of Row 1 with Carl Edwards on the outside pole.
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start in the second row with Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin on the third row.