Jimmie Johnson to race at Long Beach after breaking hand in practice crash

LONG BEACH, Calif. — 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 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 is good to go for Sunday 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 there.

It's been a whirlwind weekend, though. Johnson 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 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 in-car 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