HAMPTON, Ga.—Speeding penalties were high in this year’s Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500 compared to last year’s race.
This year, there were 13 pit road speeding penalties, but only one last season. 11 of the penalties were under green flag conditions. Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth were the two drivers to receive multiple penalties for speeding.
NASCAR added additional timing lines last summer that came into play today. There were a total of 16 timing sections in play this weekend.
Many drivers had something to say about why there were numerous penalties on pit road today.
“Well we got caught speeding on pit road as I guess a lot of people did. So, we got to look at that and see what we have wrong. I was on my lights perfectly, but seems like a lot of guys got popped in the same segment,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“I always try to be as — Chip always tells me to do the obvious things right, and number one on that list is don’t speed on pit road. I try and run to the cautious side of things where you’ve got a lot of guys that push the limits and get caught every now and then,” said Kyle Larson.
“I think I know why, but I really don’t want to share why. There’s something that I think a lot of guys are kind of aware of that goes on on pit road, and that’s something we need to address kind of internally. But I have a pretty good reasoning, and I think why it was, but I really don’t want everybody else to know,” said Chase Elliott.
The consensus amongst the garage is that this issue will be fixed as the season progresses.