Jonsson crashes car during IRL test

Niclas Jonsson may not want to see another oval anytime soon.

Jonsson, driving for the first time on an oval, crashed his Blueprint Racing car during the second day of his Indy Racing League rookie test Wednesday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The Swedish-born Jonsson lost control of the car midway between turns 3 and 4 and hit the wall in turn 4, causing minor damage to the race car. Jonsson was not hurt in the incident.

"We went through the first two phases without any problems (Tuesday)," Jonsson said. "We went through my third phase and had just gotten into the fourth phase.

"I'm not sure what happened to the car. A tire may have let go. Fortunately, everything turned out OK. We didn't hurt the car too bad. We'll be back in a couple more weeks for more testing."

One day earlier, series regular Greg Ray crashed two cars during the three-day Firestone tire test. He put the first car into the wall in turn 4 and followed a short time later by hitting the turn-2 wall in his backup car.

Friend Ken Johnson brought Jonsson to Las Vegas to prepare for a future run in the IRL. Jonsson said he is confident that the IRL test could lead to bigger things.

"I haven't been racing since 1996 when I was running Indy Lights," he said. "Basically, I'm starting all over. This was the very first time for me on an oval -- I've never seen an oval before coming here yesterday. This was a totally new experience for me."

Las Vegan Sam Schmidt and Chicago's Buzz Calkins also were at the 1.5-mile superspeedway for the second day of a three-day Firestone tire test in preparation for the Sept. 26 Vegas.com 500.

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