Kevin Grubb's story, apparent suicide are warnings for us all
In NASCAR, we focus on the winners and the near-winners. We pay close attention to the guys with the marquee sponsors, the guys on the biggest teams. And when someone slips out of the top 35 -- or when they don't even crack that upper level -- well, it's as if they've slipped right off the edge of the world.
Kevin Grubb had run in Nationwide for eight seasons, with undistinguished results. Over 174 races, he had 10 top 5 finishes and 32 top 10s. But he also had substance abuse problems, and was suspended in 2004 after testing positive for a banned substance. When he was reinstated, one of the conditions of the return was that he had to submit to drug testing anywhere, at any time. But in 2006, he declined to submit to testing following a race at Richmond International Raceway, and NASCAR suspended him indefinitely.
Kevin Grubb's story ended Wednesday in the most tragic of ways. He died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in a Richmond hotel. It's not right to speculate on how he went from racing in NASCAR to a lonesome death in a hotel room, but it's clear that much went wrong in Grubb's life, whether by accident or action. What role, if any, drugs may have played in his death remains unknown. But if not for the substance abuse, Grubb could have been racing even now.
NASCAR's drug issues are few and far between; this is the first major event since Aaron Fike's revelation in April 2008 that he raced while on heroin. But that shouldn't be a sign for NASCAR to quietly console itself with the "it could be worse" defense. Grubb's death should awaken everyone in NASCAR -- fans, media, officials, tracks, drivers' families -- to the tragic implications of a checkers-or-wreckers lifestyle tainted by drugs.
