Autopsy report released on death at Homestead

Grand Am series driver Jeff Clinton was decapitated when he crashed in practice for a race last month at Homestead-Miami Speedway, according to an autopsy report.

The March 1 crash came as Clinton, 38, prepared for the Nextel 250 Grand Am race the next day. Clinton's car veered off the course as he entered Turn 1 and flipped repeatedly.

Patrick Murphy, spokesman for the circuit, said Clinton was wearing a head-and-neck restraint, voluntary for Grand Am drivers, but his roll bar "broke away" as the car rolled. Murphy said it is extremely unusual for a roll bar to break.

"The unique situation of the crash, the trajectory the car took and the surfaces he came down on placed stress" on the roll bar, Murphy said.

The autopsy report listed the cause of death as blunt head and neck injuries. Clinton was decapitated at the base of the skull, according to the report compiled March 12 by Miami-Dade County associate medical examiner Mark Shuman.

It was the second deadly crash at the track. NASCAR truck driver John Nemechek died March 21, 1997, five days after sustaining brain injuries in a crash at the 1.5-mile oval.

FORMULA ONE: McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen was more than a second better than the rest of the 41-car field in the second day of testing at Valencia, Spain. He had a best lap of 1 minute, 13.154 seconds on the 2.5-mile track.

IRL: Davy Jones said he will drive for Team Coulson at the Indianapolis 500 next month. Jones finished second at Indy in 1996 after leading 46 laps but suffered a neck injury in '97 during in a race and missed 18 months. He has qualified five times for the Indy 500.