Jimmie Johnson Credit: CIA Stock Photo

Sunoco Pit Move of the Week: Dover

DOVER, Del. -- In the prerace driver's meeting Sunday morning at Dover, teams were advised that the pit road speed for the day would be 35 miles per hour.

When you're averaging 145 miles per hour around the Monster Mile, that can seem like you're absoultely crawling.

Near the halfway point of Sunday's MBNA America 400, Jimmie Johnson didn't crawl slow enough.

VIDEO Pit Move of the Race Jimmie Johnson gets caught speeding on pit road and pays the price

Johnson, who has a pair of Nextel Cup wins at Dover, was given a drive-through penalty for speeding getting out of pit road on Lap 172. Before the penalty, Johnson was fourth. After serving the penalty, he stacked up 19th.

What's more, Johnson struggled with the set of tires he was given and eventually fell off the lead lap.

Johnson was able to salvage a decent day, finishing 10th. However, Johnson said they were good enough to win.

"We got hit by something today that I don't think is fair," Johnson said. "I don't think we were speeding. I don't think it was right. But we don't any computer system in place to back it up."

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His car owner, Rick Hendrick, agreed, saying NASCAR needs to cease using stopwatches to gauge pit road speed.

"With the age of electronics, we ought to be doing it with a wire. Take the guess work out of it.

"I would hate to be the guy who cost a guy a championship if his finger was a little quick on the stopwatch," Hendrick said. "Everybody's human. I just think we ought to take the human element out of it."

Sadler flagged for speeding too

Johnson wasn't the only one to be penalized for speeding on pit road. Fellow Chaser Elliott Sadler was snagged with 20 laps to go Sunday, turning what would have been a top-10 finish into a 20th-place effort.

"I was just hauling butt to get to pit road and it was slicker than I thought. I knew if I hit the brakes I was gonna spin out and do what Matt Kenseth did, so I figured on taking the penalty and not wrecking the car.

"When I hit the brakes I started going sideways and said "I ain't worried about getting on pit road. If they catch me, they catch me."