Jeremy Mayfield's effort to have his lawsuit against NASCAR reopened has been denied by U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen. The decision was made Monday after Mayfield requested several months ago that the court hear new evidence on the case.

Mullen ruled in May that Mayfield had waived his right to sue the sanctioning body by signing the documents required to compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Mayfield originally filed suit after allegedly failing a NASCAR ordered drug test at Richmond in May 2009. Mayfield has been unable to compete in NASCAR since that time.

Some of the new evidence presented by Mayfield included statements made by NASCAR Chairman Brian France's former in-laws that France ordered NASCAR officials to black-flag Mayfield during the 2006 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. France provided travel records that he claims prove he was not with his former in-laws on the day of the race. France sued his former in-laws in 2009 over a Charlotte, North Carolina area home they occupied at the time.

The Owensboro, Kentucky native is only the second Sprint Cup Series driver to have failed a NASCAR drug test, the first was Tim Richmond in 1988. Richmond was tested by NASCAR physician Dr. Forest Tennant, who also worked with the NFL. The New York Times reported that Tennant "falsified drug tests" that contributed to the shortening of Tim Richmond's NASCAR career.  Tennant left NASCAR in 1989 and was criticized for the way drug testing was handled while he was the National Football League's drug adviser, a position he resgned in 1990.

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