Report: Suspended Allmendinger says he failed drug test because he popped acquaintance's pill

Filed under: Motorsports, Government/Legal, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs

Suspended NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger claims he was given the pill that led to his suspension by a friend of a friend, in a Fox Sports report. Allmendinger says he was out with a "buddy" following several sponsor commitments, and revealed to his friend that he was not sleeping well. Allmendinger says he was struggling to stay awake when "One of his friends said, 'Oh I have an energy pill that I take for working out'."

That evening occurred three days prior to testing positive for amphetamine during a random drug test at Kentucky Speedway on 6/29. NASCAR officials determined what they found on him were the same chemical compound as found in Adderall.

Allmendinger was quiet regarding that evening up until this point. "I had to do some soul searching before I came out publicly" he told Fox Sports.

Per NASCAR's no-tolerance policy, Allmendinger was suspended from the following weekend's Daytona race. According to the suspended driver, it had not even occurred to him that the pill he took three days before the race was a banned substance.

Following the suspension, Allmandinger, who was in his sixth year in NASCAR, lost his ride. He was released from Penske racing and is now taking the steps to get back into racing. He has made plans to enter NASCAR's Road to Recovery program, hoping it will lead to his reinstatement.

Suspended Allmendinger says he failed drug test because he popped acquaintance's pill originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter responds to suspended reporter controversy, explains Trust & Safety policies

Well, you might not have heard about it from us, but by now you're likely familiar with the tale of British journalist Guy Adams and the controversy surrounding his suspended Twitter account. The Independent correspondent posted a number critical missives regarding NBC's Olympic coverage, one including the corporate email address of an executive at the network. Shortly there after his page went down. Adams has since had his account reinstated, but Twitter felt it necessary to clear the air about the circumstances regarding the temporary blockage. When the company's Trust & Safety receives a complaint that personal information is being distributed, its policy is to temporarily suspend the offending account. NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel filed such a complaint, and the social network now admits it was at the behest of members of its team working closely with NBC on its Olympic coverage. That, it acknowledges, was a mistake. Twitter says it does not actively monitor anyone's account and that the Trust & Safety team was unaware that Zenkel acted on the suggestion from the company's employees. Adams has since had his account reinstated and in a blog post Twitter has stated that it "should not and cannot be in the business of proactively monitoring and flagging content, no matter who the user is."

Filed under: Internet

Twitter responds to suspended reporter controversy, explains Trust & Safety policies originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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