The No. 48 team had the last pit stall during the race Sunday. Credit: Autostock

Hendrick team questions speeding penalty

DOVER, Del. -- Nextel Cup owner Rick Hendrick and drivers Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon questioned NASCAR's method of gauging pit road speed Sunday after Johnson was penalized for speeding in the MBNA America 400.

CHASE FOR THE NEXTEL CUP •   Inside the Chase •   Superstore: Chase driver gear •   Official Standings •   Expanded access to the Chase on TrackPass

Johnson was running in the top five when he pitted for service on lap 172. As he peeled out of his pit stall, the very first one at the entrance to pit road, a NASCAR official using a stopwatch determined that he was speeding faster than the 35 mph limit.

As a result, NASCAR levied a penalty that required Johnson to come back down the pit lane for a drive-through, as well as restart at the tail end of the longest line, which was 19th position.

Worse yet, the set of tires his team had just installed didn't agree with the Lowe's Chevrolet, putting him further back in the field until he eventually fell off the lead lap. He eventually battled back to finish 10th, one lap down.

"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 have any computer system in place to back it up."

Jimmie Johnson Credit: Autostock

Hendrick, who along with Gordon is co-owner of Johnson's machine, said the time has come to implement telemetry to gauge pit road speed.

"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.

"We don't agree with it. They said we were speeding, (were) close the first time. We didn't pick up any spots. We were following the guys in front of us. If we were speeding, they were speeding.

"I hate to see NASCAR put themselves in that position, because I think with the age of electronics we ought to be doing it with a wire and make sure to take the guesswork out of it. You don't want somebody up there with a stopwatch making a decision on the championship, and that's what you've got."

Gordon took it a step further.

"Regardless of whether there's a championship on the line, they need to go to a totally different system on pit road," said Gordon, who assumed the championship points lead with his third place finish. "I can't believe we're doing it the way we're doing it.

"I've been questioning it for years. There's no way you can change anything now. The answers I get are that they don't feel confident in the systems in place to be able to do that. I don't know if they're checking into it or what the deal is."

Unfortunately for Gordon, there are no plans to change the current procedure.

Rick Hendrick Credit: Autostock

"We time the pit road speeds at random, as we've always done and did today, and he was clearly over the speed limit in the pits," NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said. "We have no plan to update it anytime soon."

According to Hendrick, the technology is ready to go right now, but NASCAR's priorities are in different areas.

"One of our sponsors, Delphi, went to them over a year ago with the technology to fix that," Hendrick said. "But if it came to putting some stands here or selling some more tickets they'd be doing it, but to spend a little money to take the guesswork out of it, I guess the tracks don't want to do it."

Mark Martin, Sunday's second place finisher, said the right answer might be to emulate Indy Racing League technology.

"I'd really only be in favor if we could have speed buttons in the cars like the IRL," Martin said. "All those guys have a button they can push that holds the car at that speed.

"If it's gonna be a one mph (speeding tolerance), I can't do it. I can't comply. I we had that, they everything would really be accurate. But that's high-tech."

And that's one issue teams have with NASCAR -- the sanctioning body wants to ensure they leeway.

"I sit there and try to hold myself at pit road speed that they tell me I'm supposed to be running, or that I've paced myself on the pace truck, and I see guys running 700 rpm over what I'm running and not getting (penalized)," Gordon said.

"And then Jimmie gets it today. I have no idea how they're going about that, how they can possibly keep track of all those cars on pit road, who's speeding and who's not."