NASCAR’s Pit Road Speeding–Don’t Ask–Don’t Tell

by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Over ten years on the air and three on the net; see what can happen when I don't let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

April 7, 2011 2:43 pm UTC 3 Comments

Jimmie Johnson was absolutely livid with NASCAR over a pit road speeding penalty last week in Martinsville.

He retracted his statements on Tuesday after reviewing NASCAR’s evidence against him. The timing loop that he sped through was not the loop he thought he was being accused of violating. Regardless of whether NASCAR or Johnson were right or wrong; questions about the sanctioning bodies transparency arose.

Johnson; along with some media and fans have called for real time posting of pit row speeds for all teams at every trip for service. Cries of conspiracy have again permeated the NASCAR world. “They are hiding information from us,” was the lament from the grandstands. NASCAR has stated they don’t feel this is information that needs to be disseminated to the fan base.

I have to agree with NASCAR on this one. As I stated on this week’s ON PIT ROW show on ustream.tv; there still needs to be some intrigue within the races and maybe just a little bit of trust from the fans that NASCAR really is a fair and benevolent organization. NASCAR has nothing to gain by issuing false speeding penalties especially to the guy that has dominated their sport for the past five years.

There is enough information available to the fans and teams on a real time basis that there doesn’t need to be more graphics on my TV screen or video boards at the track. NASCAR’s radio communication with the teams, which is available on all scanners, is sufficient to notify them of a penalty when one has occured.

No other sport has the transparency of NASCAR and quite frankly I think fans have come to expect too much from the sport. Being able to not only listen to team strategy, driver and crew chief thoughts but also the sanctioning bodies communication should be enough.

Johnson’s complaint was not the first in regard to speeding penalties and it most likely won’t be the last, but I’m okay with not having to see every teams pit road speed displayed in front of me. There comes a time that it’s better to just watch the racing.

photo credit: BethAnne Heisler/ON PIT ROW

Filed under: jimmie johnson, NASCAR, NASCAR Bidness, NASCAR Conspiracies

Tagged with: jimmie johnson, NASCAR

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Comments

3 Responses to “NASCAR’s Pit Road Speeding–Don’t Ask–Don’t Tell”

Ryan Rantz on April 7th, 2011 8:10 pm

I think NASCAR loves keeping the pit road speeds top secret because I think they like playing god and manipulating races. NASCAR has far to many “coincidences” that I think they don’t deserve the benefit of doubt on anything. To see how much they abuse their power you don’t need to love any farther then Robby Gordon. The system is definitely gamed against him.

They have a top secret rule book, they’ve been accused of phantom cautions from the competitors, secret penalties for talking about the sport, secret pit road speeds (which they keep secret because drivers competitors don’t need to know according to one of Dustin Long’s articles), and top secret inspections that pass at the track but half a week later fail.

This is a fixable problem and there’s no reason this problem can’t be fixed. The timing line system is obviously flawed and it’s time they use the telemetry in the car. Because of the timing lines drivers can get caught speeding if they simply take the low line on pit road. Also if they were to use the telemetry in the car they could get rid of that phoney baloney 5PMH buffer zone.
floyd rogers on April 8th, 2011 8:47 am

If you were talking to the law, and you didn’t have a better story than nascar ever does, you’d go from person of intrest to suspect faster than you could call a laywer. And of all their dirty deed’s, pit road speeding one a nascar’s worst. Sorry Steve, no sale.
Steve Wronkowicz on April 8th, 2011 6:03 pm

There are plenty of anomalies in every NASCAR race; I won’t dispute that. But I just don’t need to know every pit road speed of every car on every pit stop. It is simply information overload. How are you going to monitor it at the track? I think it would just cause more problems than it would solve.

I do give you this Ryan, if they are going to monitor speed lets move into the twenty-first century and use the telemetry available. NASCAR is afraid of using too sophisticated of versions of on board telemetry.

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