Jimmie Johnson has no trouble with healing right hand during Indy 500 test

INDIANAPOLIS — Jimmie Johnson looked every bit like a four-time race winner on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s historic oval for an Indy 500 test Wednesday.

Only this time, his blue No. 48 was an Indy car turning laps in excess of 215 mph.

The seven-time NASCAR champion climbed as high as third on the speed chart before finishing the first of two Indianapolis 500 test sessions pain free. He told reporters he has been feeling good since doctors surgically inserted a screw into his broken right hand on April 11.

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“I was surprised with how big the screw was, but the pain was just gone in such a short time after the surgery,” Johnson said on pit road. “But I didn’t have any soft tissue issues, either.”

Johnson later said in a social media video that he was pleased to finish with the sixth-best lap in the early two-hour veteran session.

Day 1 download @IMS. pic.twitter.com/stQ6UBrGXI

— Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) April 20, 2022

Johnson, 46, still took some precautions – wearing protective padding over a wrap around his injured hand. It certainly didn’t slow down his car or his learning curve.

Johnson noted the ovals he avoided in his inaugural IndyCar season last year put less force on his hand than the Long Beach street course, where he drove with a splint after suffering the injury in a practice crash, or than he might endure in the May 1 race at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.

Johnson finished a career-best sixth March 20 at Texas Motor Speedway in his IndyCar oval debut.

While many veterans struggled Wednesday with pit exit during a blustery session that began after a 90-minute rain delay,