Spencer Gallagher goes from triumph to suspension

In one of the sadder stories of the 2018 season so far, Spencer Gallagher was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR just days after a breakthrough victory.

Finally, Spencer Gallagher was a winner. In his 107th start between the Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series, the 28-year-old from Las Vegas made it to Victory Lane for the first time, winning the Sparks Energy 300 at Talladega. It was a win that had to thrill the driver, his GMS Racing team and his dad, who owns both GMS Racing and Allegiant Air, the company that is the primary sponsor of Gallagher’s cars.

Unfortunately, none of them are feeling much like winners today after NASCAR suspended Gallagher indefinitely for violating its substance abuse policy. The suspension starts immediately and could very well knock the driver out of playoff contention, considering he likely won’t be high enough in points by the time he returns — he’ll need to complete NASCAR’s Road to Recovery program before he can be reinstated — to qualify even with his win.

A driver running afoul of the NASCAR substance abuse policy doesn’t happen often, but it’s not unprecedented. Perhaps the most notable example in recent memory was former Cup Series driver Jeremy Mayfield, who was suspended in 2009 and never returned to stock car racing.

For his part, Gallagher is calling his positive test a one-shot deal and not something symptomatic of a larger issue.

"I recently have had a positive result in a NASCAR drug screen, which has violated NASCAR’s substance abuse policy. I want to assure everyone in the NASCAR community this one-time error in judgment will never happen again. I am taking the steps to enroll in the Road to Recovery program supported by NASCAR. I would like to say that I am sorry to all of the GMS organization for my actions, especially my team and team owner, who have worked so hard this year and have put faith in me. I also want to apologize to NASCAR, Chevrolet and my fans for letting them down. I have not upheld the behavior that is expected of me. I promise you all here and now, I will do whatever it takes to make this right."

Here’s hoping Gallagher is right, because right now, he’s better known for scrapping with John Wes Townley than anything he’s accomplished on the track (seriously, “spencer gallagher fight” is the top search term for his name). He was just starting to change that, and the Talladega win and a spot in the playoffs could have helped make that even more of a reality.

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We’ll learn a lot about him from the way he responds to this self-imposed setback. In the meantime, his loss is Ryan Sieg’s gain, as he’ll inherit Gallagher’s Dash 4 Cash spot at Dover. Should Sieg win the $100,000, that would be a slightly upbeat epilogue to this story, albeit not for Gallagher himself. For his next chapter, we’ll just have to wait.