I think as a race car driver, speed is one of the most important attributes. The other is knowing when to let up on the gas. Apparently, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. wasn't so good at the latter.
Earnhardt finished 2017 as the most penalized NASCAR Cup driver for speeding on pit road. NASCAR officials set a pit road speed limit for each race, but drivers don't have a speedometer in their cars. Instead, drivers use their tachometers on the pace lap as a way to gauge the allowed speed, then refer to the tach and a series of lights to tell them if they're running too fast.
NBCSports.com reports that Earnhardt, Jr. was penalized 8 times in 2017. The very first time was in Atlanta where Earnhardt, Jr. said at the time that trying to gauge speed off a tachometer and lights is tricky.
"We've got to look at that and see what we have wrong," Earnhardt, Jr. said. "I was on my lights perfectly, but seems like a lot of guys got popped in the same segment."
There were three drivers right behind Earnhardt, Jr. in the number of penalties. Trevor Bayne, Kasey Kahne, and Matt Kenseth all had seven.
Here's the list of drivers with the most penalties for speeding on pit road for 2017 according to nbcsports.com:
8 -- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
7 -- Trevor Bayne
7 -- Kasey Kahne
7 -- Matt Kenseth
6 -- Matt DiBenedetto
6 -- Michael McDowell
6 -- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
5 -- Aric Almirola
5 -- Clint Bowyer
5 -- Kyle Busch
5 -- Derrike Cope
5 -- Denny Hamlin
5 -- Corey LaJoie
5 -- Joey Logano
5 -- Ryan Newman
5 -- Reed Sorenson
4 -- Austin Dillon
4 -- Timmy Hill
4 -- Brad Keselowski
4 -- Martin Truex Jr.