Johnson admits mistake cost him a shot at victory

DOVER, Del. -- There didn't seem to be much doubt that Sunday's Cup race at Dover International Speedway was going to come down to a two-man duel between Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson.

And it probably would have, if Johnson hadn't made a very rare mistake coming out of his pit stall on Lap 365 of the Autism Speaks 400. Johnson accelerated too quickly and was clocked by NASCAR officials going 40.091 mph on pit road -- 5.091 mph over the 35 mph limit.

Johnson was caught speeding in segment six of eight segments that make up pit road at the 1-mile track, according to NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston. He had to serve a pass-through penalty as a result, and ended up having to settle for a 16th-place finish as Busch sailed to his second victory of the season.

"It definitely cost us a top-two finish," said Johnson, who led a total of eight times for a race-high 225 laps. "I'm frustrated. I think we've got to be a little bit more aware of our acceleration of the car off pit road, and how we can get busted there. But outside of that, I can't say we did anything else wrong all day. We led a bunch of laps, had great pit stops. I mean, across the board it was a great day. I just hate, that at the end, one small mistake knocked us back to a 16th-place finish."

Johnson was attempting to beat Busch off pit road at the time. He said he knew his penalty came shortly after he left his pit stall because by the time he reached the stall occupied by Busch's No. 18 Toyota, he already had conceded that Busch was going to beat his No. 48 Chevrolet back out onto the track. Johnson had been leading the race, with Busch second, when they came to the pits.

"The segment I got busted in was right after our pit box," Johnson said. "When I saw the jack drop for Kyle, I knew I was beat [off pit road] and actually kind of checked up. I didn't want to get busted on the small segment at the very end. I just kind of let him have it because I felt like I was beat and we needed to be single file coming through [Turns] 1 and 2 on the apron.

"So I got nailed leaving my pit box. The car hooked up a lot better and accelerated a lot faster than we expected it to." (Continued)