Less than a week after neck spasms forced him to hand over his car to a relief driver 22 laps into Sunday’s waterlogged event at Bristol Motor Speedway, #11-Denny Hamlin plans to be back behind the wheel for Saturday night’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway. Hamlin, who turned over his seat to Joe Gibbs Racing XFINITY Series driver Erik Jones in Thunder Valley, also expects to compete in Friday night’s XFINITY race at RIR. Hamlin watched most of Sunday’s race at Bristol from the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing team pit box as Jones brought his Toyota home in 26th. “Obviously, getting out of the car on Sunday was a very tough decision, and Erik did an admirable job under difficult circumstances,” Hamlin said in a team release issued Wednesday morning. After treatment this week, I feel close to 100 percent, and I’m confident that I’ll be good to go this weekend in Richmond. It’s a great track for our team, and one that means a lot to me personally. Hopefully, we can go out there and compete for the win on Saturday night.”(FoxSports)(4-22-2015)
