At Atlanta, Jeff Gordon Revisits NASCAR Pit Road Timing Lines Issue

After Bristol last week, Jeff Gordon said the track’s pit road timing lines were “terrible” and said it was “a joke” that drivers could take advantage of the system to such a degree.

On Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Gordon reiterated his call for NASCAR to address the pit road segments.

“To me, we always look at how to keep this sport as equal as possible,” he said. “They’re looking at how they govern the rules and the things they do with the templates and all that, but yet they make us have huge advantages with pit stalls by not having segments (equal at some tracks).”

Here’s the issue: Pit roads at places like Bristol have gaps between certain pit stalls and the timing lines. Since speeding penalties are determined by a driver’s time between the two lines and NOT the actual speed, drivers can go much faster than the speed limit depending on where their stall is located.

Why? Because if they make a pit stop in between the timing lines, they won’t get caught speeding in the remainder of that segment no matter how fast they go.

“From a safety standpoint, you shouldn’t have guys driving 10, 20 mph over coming into their box, sliding in,” Gordon said. “And I don’t necessarily think it’s (safe) leaving as well.

Gordon said he actually had one of the favorable pit stalls at Bristol, so it didn’t cost him the victory. But it still stuck out in his mind “as something that shouldn’t be happening in our sport today,” he said.

“It definitely needs to be addressed,” he added.

When will this issue come up again? Gordon said the timing lines will be brought up again when NASCAR travels to Martinsville in October.

“If there’s a speed limit, we shouldn’t be breaking it,” he said. “But we do, because we know how to take advantage of it.”