Several drivers, including five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, four-time champ Jeff Gordon, August 2011 Pocono winner Brad Keselowski, perennial championship contenders Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, and David Reutimann in a substitute role for the suspended Kurt Busch, have been tagged for speeding on pit road at the Pocono 400 on this latest cycle of green flag pit stops.
Drivers are complaining that the scoring lines along pit road are placed incorrectly in one timing section of pit lane, making them appear to be driving faster through that section than they actually are. With the competitive nature of big time stock car racing, drivers push their pit road speed to the absolute limit - a five-mile-per-hour tolerance granted by NASCAR over the posted speed limit.
Harvick in particular was reported by his team as saying that all the lights on his tachometer - stock cars use RPMs rather than miles per hour to guage their speed - were green, indicating that he was well within the limit of his pit road speed all the way down the pit lane. The mass confusion has drivers and teams scrambling to figure out what speed they can run through the pit lane without being nailed for speeding on pit road.
Among the confusion, Denny Hamlin - a four-time Pocono winner - has assumed the race lead after 55 laps. He leads Dale Earnhardt Jr. by just over two seconds. Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth, and Joey Logano round out the top-five.