Tennant No Longer NASCAR’s Drug Adviser

Dr. Forest Tennant is no longer working for NASCAR as its drug adviser, a spokesman for the premier stock car sanctioning body said Thursday in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Tennant is the executive director of Community Health Projects, Inc., a group of drug-treatment clinics headquartered in West Covina.

He has come under fire for his work as a consultant to the NFL, and it was reported this week by The Times and WJLA-TV in Washington that the result of a drug test he administered to Tim Richmond was falsified. Richmond, a former Winston Cup driver, died of AIDS last August.

Chip Williams, NASCAR’s public relations director, said: “Last spring or the early summer of last year, we had an amicable parting (with Dr. Tennant). He agreed to help us look for someone a little closer to us on the East Coast.”

Williams said Tennant has not yet been replaced.

Tennant, in Battle Creek, Mich., for a speech at a high school, said the report on WJLA-TV featured two disgruntled previous employees who were paid to give interviews.

“It’s a little discouraging to see former employees who left disgruntled and what have you, be paid to give stories,” Tennant told the Battle Creek Enquirer.

The station denied that Gordon Griffith and Bobby Tovar, both former employees of Tennant, had been paid for interviews.