The cavity transmission spectrum is experimentally investigated in Λ-type three-level atoms coupled to a standing-wave cavity system. It is shown that the dark-state polariton peak is not generated at resonance but rather at off-resonance. The theoretical analysis reveals that the absence of an on-resonance dark-state polariton peak is mainly caused by the strong absorption of the intracavity medium to the probe cavity mode counterpropagating with the coupling field due to the Doppler shift in the hot atoms. Moreover, the optimal frequency position of the cavity mode for an efficient dark-state polariton peak is also demonstrated.