San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
JOHNSON CRASHES AGAIN, SAYS HE’S GOOD TO GO TODAY
Jimmie Johnson pulled one glove over the carbon fiber splint built specifically for his broken right hand. A piece of tape around two fingers outside of the glove was to prevent him from using his pinkie — the digit closest to the fracture — as he drove his car around the downtown streets of Long Beach.
But what was supposed to be a Saturday morning test to determine Johnson’s fitness a day after he was injured ended in another crash, another trip to the medical center and another set of X-rays.
“I had no pain on track, I felt great, just trying to go too fast into Turn 1 and locked the tires and got wide,” Johnson said outside the medical center. “I’m more disappointed in myself making the mistake and tearing up the car again. But from an injury standpoint, I feel really good.”
Johnson said he’s good to go for today at Long Beach, the Indycar stop considered his home race. He grew up two hours away in El Cajon, so Long Beach was an annual childhood family trip, and Johnson rented a suite for 40 friends to watch him make his second career Indycar start at Long Beach.
It’s been a whirlwind weekend, though, for Johnson. He arrived in Long Beach coming off an Indycar career-best sixth-place finish in his oval debut at Texas Motor Speedway — a performance that suddenly vaulted the seven-time NASCAR champion into the Indianapolis 500 contender conversation.
Johnson himself was among those hyped for his Indy 500 debut in Friday morning comments; hours later, he crashed into a tire barrier and broke his hand. The injury was apparent immediately as Johnson’s incar camera showed him shaking his right hand.
It had appeared that Johnson did not remove his hands from the steering wheel, a common practice in open wheel racing to protect the driver from the force of the impact. NASCAR drivers do not typically remove their hands from the steering wheel in a crash.
But Johnson clarified Saturday he did remove his hands from the steering wheel but did not pull them back far enough to avoid injury.
Long Beach qualifying
Colton Herta broke the Long Beach track record in Saturday qualifying, and the California native will start from the pole for his home Indycar race.
Herta turned a lap at 1 minute, 05.3095 seconds on the temporary street course set up through downtown Long Beach to earn his eighth career pole and the right to lead the field to green today. The previous track record was 1:06.2254 set by Helio Castroneves in 2017.
Herta, who is from nearby Valencia, is the defending race winner and hoping to give Andretti Autosport its fourth consecutive victory in the most prestigious street course race in the United States.
Byron wins NASCAR race
William Byron took the lead on pit road after Stage 2 stops and held it pretty much the rest of the way at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday night to become the first repeat winner this season in NASCAR’S Cup Series.
Byron needed to hold off a challenge — and a nudge — from Joey Logano on a twolap overtime sprint to finish it, but won for the fourth time in his career and gave Hendrick Motorsports four victories in eight races this season.
Byron and the seven drivers behind him opted to stay out for the final dash.
“I thought everyone behind us would pit, and luckily we stayed out,” he said. “We were aggressive; we felt like we could refire on the tires and be OK, and you’ve got one of the most aggressive guys behind you in Logano.”
Byron had both a fast car that allowed him to pull away on restarts and a strong one on long runs, critical since there wasn’t a caution for anything but the end of a stage until the 311th of 400 laps on the 0.526-mile oval.
That changed when Todd Gilliland had a f lat tire and hit the wall with five laps to go. Byron and the top eight cars on the track opted not to pit, with Byron picking the inside lane and Austin Dillon on the outside running second.
Logano, running third and behind Byron, got a better jump than Dillon on the restart and bumped Byron in Turn 2 on the last lap, but Byron held on for his second win of the weekend. He won in the Truck Series on Thursday night.
“Willy kind of messed up off of 4 and let me get to him, and he did a really good job of brake checking into third, right, which is a good job,” Logano said.