Pit Lane Speeding: Should NASCAR Make Changes After Jimmie Johnson's Comments?

Racin' with Russ–This is a topic that comes up every year with no real resolution, the general public doesn't see the process in action and so on.

But when five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson goes off after a recent race that he was not speeding and NASCAR was wrong for penalizing his team, it raised some additional eyebrows.

Several days after his rare bashing of NASCAR, Johnson retracted his comment and apologized for the indiscretion, but you could tell there is still an “air” about the process in his comments.

The process of catching drivers speeding down pit lane has evolved over the past few decades, where they used to simply and arbitrarily pick a driver to time and possibly punish by using a handheld stop watch.

We have surely progressed from those days, with sophisticated timing loops buried below the surface of pit lane in a number of speed zones, some of them being different lengths than others.

It’s no big secret to the teams as to where they are and they spend a lot of time trying to figure out ways to ‘beat’ the system by speeding just a little bit in between segments or just at the end or beginning of one.

Yes, there is a 4.99 mph leeway, but go over that and you’ll get busted...maybe. In an unusual move, NASCAR recently allowed TV cameras into timing and scoring and more specifically, the inner workings of the pit lane speeding setup. There are several computer monitors indicating a car's speed as it travels down pit lane. If a car went over the magic number, the box it was in would show up bright red and the attending official would indicate to “higher-ups” the infraction, whereupon the team would be informed…maybe.

I keep saying maybe, because in my heart of hearts, I don’t believe that all infractions are reported. I and many others feel that NASCAR needs to have grey areas to play with to give them the ultimate control of what goes on.

This is just one of many grey areas NASCAR holds close to the vest. Race fans and media members have asked if the pit lane speeding results should be open to the public during the race broadcast, so that we’re all on the same page? If they did, the grey area would be gone and that will never happen with NASCAR.

How does NASCAR help the teams with this process? Well, some of you may not realize that before a race starts, the cars travel down pit lane behind the pace car at the pre-determined pit lane speed for that particular track and the drivers are supposed to note what RPM they are traveling at and in what gear. This is not done at all tracks all of the time.

Some drivers have asked, "What about speedometers?" Besides not being terribly accurate, it’s just another electronic gauge that NASCAR does not want in the car, as it may have the ability to hide a traction control device, the number one no-no on the things not to do list in NASCAR.

There are a couple of hundred speeding violations a season in each division. They are costly in the big picture and are sometimes unavoidable, with drivers and teams always trying to stretch the envelope at every turn.

No matter what NASCAR comes up with and there are bound to be changes down the road, drivers will stretch their legs and get caught. It’s tough to tell drivers to slow down when the object of the sport is go fast and get to the end first.

Have a solution? Drop me a line.