Jeff Gordon Calls On Bristol, NASCAR To Re-Examine Pit Road

Jeff Gordon dominated Saturday night’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway – until it came to pit road, that is.

The five-time Bristol winner had the field beat on the track, leading five times for a total of 206 laps, but lost the race when he was beat off pit road on the final stop of the day.

Never able to get back to the front, Gordon urged NASCAR to re-examine the timing lines and called Bristol’s pit road “terrible.”

“The whole purpose of having timing lines and pit road speed is to make it as equal and fair for everyone as you can, and they’ve got some work to do on this pit road,” he said. “The race track is awesome, but this pit road is terrible. When a guy can run 60 mph down pit road and the pit road speed is 35, then something’s wrong with the system.”

Knowing the gaps in the timing lines, drivers were able to speed up after passing one segment before slamming on the brakes before hitting the next.

“It’s a joke that someone can leave pit road and slam on their brakes. Kenseth drove past four cars, and so did the 2 car (Brad Keselowski) when he left his pit stall,” Gordon said. “I just don’t understand it, but that’s just the way it is here.”

Gordon said he does not understand why NASCAR has yet to develop a technology in which drivers can hit pit road speed with the touch of a button on the steering wheel, saying, “We have the technology to do it.”

While he described Bristol as “possibly the worst” track in terms of pit road timing lines, he said nearly every track has its faults given the current system.

“Everywhere we go we look at timing lines and see where there are big gaps in the timing lines to try and take advantage of them,” he said.

Five-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, though, disagreed with his teammate.

“I’m not sure why everyone is upside down about what goes on on pit road,” he tweeted after the race. “This happens every week and it’s why qualifying is so important.”

The story continued to unfold after the race as NASCAR Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said the sanctioning body “saw what happened” on pit road and were “already looking into it.’

“What we are likely to do is install a few more scoring loops on pit road in order to create more segments,” he said in a statement release via Twitter. “It’s also one of the advantages that teams realize through qualifying ... and it shows just how competitive things are in the Sprint Cup Series.”