Johnson benched due to a misunderstanding

A misunderstanding is what parked Jimmie Johnson during Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Collected in the big crash on Lap 173, Johnson took his car to pit road for possible repairs by his Hendrick Motorsports team. However, NASCAR had displayed the red flag and no work is allowed during that time. Officials deemed the team had worked on the car before the red flag had been officially rescinded and sent Johnson to the garage, ending his race.

"While we're under red no work or service can be done to the vehicles," Elton Sawyer, NASCAR's vice president of officiating and technical inspection, told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Monday morning. "So, what happens is David Hoots, who is our race director, he will say as he did yesterday the cars that are stopped on the back straightaway [can] fire up the engines [but] we're still under red conditions."

"We talked to Chad [Knaus, crew chief] and Mr. Hendrick after the race. They totally understand, they got it – the situation that happened was David said 'fire them up', they fired the engines up on the back straightaway but we were still under red. The team assumed that they could go back to work."

Believing the red flag had been rescinded and the yellow was back out because the engines had been fired is what ended the No. 48 team's day.

Johnson questioned what happened after being released from the infield care center and called for NASCAR to rectify the situation. The position and points earned for Johnson and Co. are valuable as he is one of the 12 remaining playoff drivers.

"Our officials you would notice were on pit road telling them no you can't do that. Then the red was rescinded and we displayed the yellow, which would have allowed them to go back to work," Sawyer continued. "And because they were under the [damaged vehicle policy], and they worked on it under the red, that put them out of the event."

Johnson finished 24th. Going into the elimination race at Kansas Speedway this weekend, he holds a seven-point advantage on the provisional cutline.