#11- Denny Hamlin will skip Sprint Cup practice Thursday because of a sore back. His JGR teammate, Joey Logano, will take Hamlin’s car out Thursday, splitting time during the 4 p.m.-5:20 p.m. and 6:35 p.m.-8 p.m. ET sessions, which are the only practices scheduled for the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday. Drivers typically don ‘t practice during both of the entire sessions because they want to make sure their engines are fresh and so they don ‘t wreck their primary cars. JGR officials said Wednesday that they didn ‘t expect to have a standby driver for Hamlin, who is fifth in the Cup standings and must start the race Saturday in order to earn the points for the event. Hamlin already has decided not to run the Nationwide Series race Friday.(Sporting News)(7-5-2012)
UPDATE: Denny Hamlin spoke to the media Thursday about his back:
What is wrong with your back?
‘There are a few things. There are some torn disks and there’s some bulging disks. There’s a lot of different things that’s just happened over time, and it’s just gotten progressively worse. I noticed ‘ Kentucky is not the smoothest of race tracks that we ‘ve gone to, and with our aggressive setups nowadays , evidentially took its toll on us and the next day it got real tight by the end of the day, and then I sat down for dinner and couldn ‘t get up. I ‘ve had a history of back spasms now for probably four years and it just flared up again. This is about as bad as it was at its worse in 2008 or so. I ‘m just now starting to get mobile again and being able to get around. We don ‘t want to set any of that back by sitting down any longer than I have to.’
How long does it take to rehab and strengthen your back?
‘It’s all going to be based off of my feel really. I think that I really feel like, by say Monday or Tuesday , that I ‘ll feel exactly the way I was before last week. I ‘ve always had back pain. Unfortunately I inherited it from my dad. It’s one of the bad qualities I did get from him. It’s just one of those things that anytime I play an activity, it doesn ‘t matter what it is, even if I go for a run, I ‘ve always had back problems afterwards ‘ stiffness and things like that.’
Did your doctor tell you if you ‘d eventually need surgery for your back? ‘Years down the road, he said. What we ‘re trying to cover up is basically just stuff that can be helped with just training and things like that. I ‘m just going to do more physical therapy to specifically work on that because I really haven ‘t in my training regimen that much here lately ‘ worked on back issues so now we ‘re going to shift that focus to that.’(Toyota Motorsports)(7-6-2012)
