Jimmie Johnson wants in-race reviews from NASCAR

Jeff Gluck | USA TODAY Sports

CONCORD, N.C. -- Jimmie Johnson called for major changes to the way NASCAR officiates races on Wednesday, four days after two high-profile incidents at Richmond International Raceway continued to be the talk of NASCAR.

Johnson proposed halting a race with a red-flag to review any questionable circumstances, similar to an NFL-style replay timeout.

"In my opinion, if there is a question they don't know, they need to stop the race immediately," Johnson said during a promotional event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "Red flag, pits are closed, figure it out and make the best judgment they can. Because trying to go back on Monday or Tuesday to fix the situation is just too much, and then I learn something about a ripple effect."

NASCAR announced the largest penalties in its history late Monday night after reviewing actions taken by the Michael Waltrip Racing team to manipulate the outcome of NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup field.

Initially, NASCAR said it saw nothing wrong with what MWR did – which included having Brian Vickers make a late-race pit stop to give up a position in the race, which helped teammate Martin Truex Jr. make the Chase. NASCAR later removed Truex from the Chase with its penalty.

Stopping the race for an incident like Clint Bowyer's suspicious spin -- he said after the race and in his first public comments Tuesday since the penalties that he did not spin on purpose -- would have been hard for some people to swallow, but also "the lesser of the evils," Johnson said.

"Trying to come back on a Monday or a Tuesday and rectify the situation seems like a bigger problem to me than to stop the race," he said.

Jeff Gordon, Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, was not let back into the Chase despite being affected by MWR's actions. NASCAR said it could not assume Gordon would have made the Chase due to a "ripple effect."

The other much-discussed incident from Saturday involved eventual race winner Carl Edwards passing leader Paul Menard on the final restart before the drivers reached the start/finish line.

Johnson, who was penalized earlier this season for jumping the restart, said he was "shocked there wasn't a call" on Edwards.

"I'm told (Menard) brushed him before the restart zone and that allowed the jump to take place or something," Johnson said. "It just baffles me that that's allowed. I was told it's crystal clear, black and white, when I had my issues earlier in the year. And then this is extremely gray."

Edwards' move was smart, Johnson said, because NASCAR didn't call a penalty when Brad Keselowski jumped the restart on Brian Scott in the previous night's Nationwide race.

Though they warned drivers in the pre-race meeting, Johnson said there was no reason for Edwards to listen. That's why officials need to "send a message" on restarts, he said.

"It's just like a pitcher throwing a pitch: If an ump keeps calling (balls) up high as strikes, you're going to throw 'em up there," Johnson said. "You're going to work your advantage. That could have been the case."

Johnson said both incidents illustrated NASCAR's need for more technology – including video and audio replays – as well as more officiating. The five-time champion said NASCAR should be "staffing up" its officiating staff instead of planning to cut back after this season.

"I do recognize it's tough to make all these calls, but it kind of comes back to my point that we know this stuff is going to happen," he said. "Drivers are going to work the rules every which way they can. We need to properly officiate during the race. We've done an amazing job through officiating tech inspection and pre-(race) and post-(race) and what goes on, but the race calling itself, we need more officials. We need more people involved in the game."

As for Johnson's own questionable incident, the driver dismissed Bowyer's accusation of foul play when the No. 48 hit the wall with a flat tire – which put Gordon back on the lead lap.

Johnson was told to "check the volt gauge" before the incident, but he had been having electrical problems throughout the night.

"If anybody has any question, they should just go back and look at the race and see that our tire blowing was bad for the 24, bad for the 5 (Kasey Kahne), bad for a lot of guys that were coming to pit road," Johnson said. "The only silver lining for the 24 was that he was preserved on pit road and the timing of it all and was able to have the lucky dog.

"I think (Bowyer) was just having a bad day yesterday and as things kept piling on, they just tried to suck someone else into the mix with them."