Aaron Fike, shown after winning a USAC race at RIR in 2001, has admitted to driving in NASCAR truck races last year under the influence of heroin. Perhaps the most stunning aspect of Aaron Fike's admission last week that he had competed in a NASCAR truck race while under the influence of heroin was that it took so long for it to happen.

Sprint Cup's top drivers said Friday that none of them had ever been tested for drugs by NASCAR. Not Kevin Harvick, not Jeff Burton, not Kasey Kahne, not Jimmie Johnson, not Jeff Gordon.

Some drivers have been caught. Shane Hmiel was permanently banned from the sport after his third positive test. Mechanicsville's Kevin Grubb was suspended for two years, from March 2004 to June 2006. He raced that fall at Richmond International Raceway, wrecked on the second lap and, according to NASCAR, refused to take a drug test. He was suspended again. Tyler Walker is currently suspended for failing a test last May.

But Fike's admission was the first time any driver had admitted to driving under the influence in a race. Fike, a Craftsman Truck Series driver, was arrested in July with his fiancée in the parking lot of an amusement park in Ohio. Found in the car were syringes holding heroin and other paraphernalia.

And so the magnifying glass turned to NASCAR. And Harvick said his concerns were met with, at best, indifference.

"I had a long conversation with NASCAR the last time we had this policy brought up in the end of the year last year, and it almost seems like it went on deaf ears," Harvick said. "I'm disappointed with the fact that we're in a case where we have to have a reaction instead of being proactive about the situation . . . [and] that we have to answer these questions again and we haven't made any headway whatsoever on the drug testing policy.

"They were more mad that I had a reaction to the situation than they were as far as trying to move forward. To me, it was just kind of one of those meetings where they were content to listen to what I had to say and that was about it."

NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said that was simply not the case.

"First of all, let me assure you that no issue or conversation that we have with a driver, owner or team member ever falls on deaf ears," Tharp said in an e-mail. "Now, they might not always come out of the meeting with the answer they're looking for, but we listen."

Ryan Newman said he was willing to guarantee Fike was neither the first nor the last to have been on the track under the influence. His confidence in that flew in the face of veteran Mark Martin, who said he was "astounded" by Fike's admission.

"I saw that, and I guess that just shows you can be naive," Martin said. "I was naive. I didn't think that was ever really a problem or ever would be an issue. I was surprised by that."

NASCAR's drug policy includes the testing of any driver if there is reasonable suspicion. Drivers last week at Phoenix said they would wholeheartedly support a more stringent testing policy, one that would include far more random testing.

While NASCAR may revisit the policy in the future, however, Tharp's comments make it clear the governing body doesn't consider it a do-or-die situation.

"The responsibility here rests across the board -- with the drivers and competitors, owners and teams and NASCAR," Tharp said in the e-mail. "NASCAR's policy is also supported by the various policies that the teams have in place that are required under the driver/owner agreements. No system is flawless, but we believe our zero-tolerance policy that is in place has served the sport well."

Much as the death of Dale Earnhardt led to wide-sweeping changes in NASCAR concerning safety, the legend's son thinks an uproar now could inspire changes in drug testing.

"If the public were to ask that question, NASCAR's reaction would be to start testing people," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "They've always sort of had that style of management, if you will. Once a complaint gets loud enough, they sort of take reaction to it."

Harvick hopes so.

"What difference does it make if they do random drug testing every week on every driver in the garage and you have to do it 15 times a year," Harvick said. "I'm sure I'll have to [take a test] for speaking my mind, but if I have to pee in a cup 15 times a year, I'm happy to do that. Just make sure that everybody in the world knows that our sport is clean."