DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA — Denny Hamlin, who will start on the front row for the Daytona 500, recanted a comment he made this week on a Barstool Sports podcast that 70 percent of NASCAR drivers take Adderall or a similar type of medicine to stay focused.
“I think anyone who has listened to their podcast knows they are funny and joking around and not serious whatsoever,” Hamlin told JeffGluck.com and ESPN.com on Friday outside his motorhome at Daytona International Speedway. “They make jokes about a lot of things.
“I literally said we get drug-tested all the time. When they asked me how many (drivers), I said I didn’t know, and they said, ‘Just give us a number,’ and I joked around and gave them a number that has no fact behind it. It’s getting blown up.”
The podcast Pardon My Take took Hamlin’s comment and tweeted about to its 270,000 followers, asking if NASCAR had a drug problem:
Does NASCAR have a drug problem? pic.twitter.com/wFnHcOeXeR
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) February 16, 2018
Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, blasted the assertion.
O’Donnell met with Hamlin on Friday, according to JeffGluck.com and ESPN.com
Hamlin was later asked if he thought 70 percent of drivers take Adderall, he said: “Probably not. Realistically no. We get drug tested all time and NASCAR has a zero (tolerance) policy for anybody that does anything that’s not prescription.’'