#11-Denny Hamlin was held Sunday night at a Birmingham hospital Sunday for further evaluation after a tire failure led to a hard crash at Talladega Superspeedway. Hamlin was alert and awake when he was transported to the UAB Medical Center, but was complaining of a headache and possibly had a concussion. He was also favoring his right foot after a slow exit from his crumpled car. “The tire went down and it was quite a shot,” Joe Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs said. “He’s got a little headache, so they’re just going to watch him. It was a scary deal, but it’s at least nice that he’s alert and with it.” Hamlin, one of 12 drivers racing for the Sprint Cup title, was leading midway through the race when his right front tire failed and his Toyota shot into the outside wall. He said nothing over his in-car radio after the hit and took several moments to get out of the car. Crew chief Mike Ford said he was unsure what happened to the tire, and did not have a chance to speak to Hamlin. “But it happened so fast, I doubt he even knows,” Ford said. Hamlin’s tire failure was the fourth one in the race and fifth of the weekend. Earlier, Brian Vickers’ tire exploded as he was racing for the lead and it triggered an eight-car accident. Ford said on the run before Hamlin’s tire failure, the right rear tire had several cuts in it when the crew removed it during a pit stop. Hamlin attributed the cuts to debris on the race track, so Ford said it was unclear if the later failure was caused by Hamlin running over something or a deficiency in the Goodyear product.(Associated Press)(10-5-2008) UPDATE: Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing was released this morning from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Hospital after spending the night for observation. Following his lap 99-incident in yesterday’s Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway, Hamlin was taken to the track’s infield care center then transported by ambulance to Birmingham. He was kept overnight at UAB and released this morning to return home to North Carolina. Hamlin had just lead his ninth lap of the race when he lost his right-front tire in turn two, slid up the track and made heavy contact with the SAFER barrier.(Joe Gibbs Racing PR)(10-6-2008)
