Denny Hamlin continues to recover from a back injury suffered on a last lap crash at Auto Club Speedway last month. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was racing for the lead with his former teammate Joey Logano on the final lap of the Auto Club 400 when disaster struck. As the two entered turn four their two cars came together. The resulting crash handed the race win to Kyle Busch and sent the Toyota driven by Hamlin into the inside wall exiting the turn. Hamlin suffered a compression fracture of his L1 vertebrae. As a result Hamlin is expected to miss up to six weeks in the racecar while he recovers.
Wednesday however, Hamlin said his goal is to return to racing by April 27 when NASCAR races at Richmond International Raceway, the venue the Virginia native considers to be his home track. Hamlin spoke in an interview with SPEED reporter Kaitlyn Vincie in an interview that aired on NASCAR Race Hub. Hamlin also said his recovery his going well.
“I feel not completely back to normal but I at least can walk around and be a little bit more mobile,” he said. “I’m past the physical hurdles that this injury has given me. It’s just now the mental of not being able to get in the race car for the next six weeks.” MORE>>>
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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