Denny Hamlin had the gait of a man in his 70's Monday in the garage at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Hamlin said he injured his left hip playing basketball Sunday night with friends who were trying to help him find something to do to forget his race Saturday night at Richmond when he led almost all the way until his tire lost air pressure with about 20 laps to go and he finished a disappointing 24th.
"I'd like to say I was going up for a dunk, but I think everyone would know that ain't true,'' Hamlin said. "When I went up, the person was lower than I was and I kind of flipped over his shoulder. I was horizontal to the ground. That was bad on the way down.'' Hamlin said.
"I'd like to say I was going up for a dunk, but I think everyone would know that ain't true,'' Hamlin said. "When I went up, the person was lower than I was and I kind of flipped over his shoulder. I was horizontal to the ground. That was bad on the way down.'' Hamlin said.
"It popped and it doesn't feel good at all. I couldn't lay on it last night, and it ain't getting much better." Hamlin said he might see a doctor soon.
When someone mentioned that it had been a rough two days for him, Hamlin replied: "It ain't been very good. I'm just trying to get in the swing of things. It's good to be back at a race track.''
Hamlin was cruising to the win when the tire started losing air pressure. Hamlin stayed on the track instead of pitting, hoping for a caution. He proved to be the caution when the tire let go. He stopped on the track and got the caution and then took off, earning a two-lap penalty from NASCAR.
Many Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans -and Earnhardt Jr. - were upset at Hamlin for pulling the move. With Hamlin's caution bunching the field, it gave Kyle Busch a chance to make a last-ditch run at Earnhardt that turned into their incident.
When someone mentioned that it had been a rough two days for him, Hamlin replied: "It ain't been very good. I'm just trying to get in the swing of things. It's good to be back at a race track.''
Hamlin was cruising to the win when the tire started losing air pressure. Hamlin stayed on the track instead of pitting, hoping for a caution. He proved to be the caution when the tire let go. He stopped on the track and got the caution and then took off, earning a two-lap penalty from NASCAR.
Many Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans -and Earnhardt Jr. - were upset at Hamlin for pulling the move. With Hamlin's caution bunching the field, it gave Kyle Busch a chance to make a last-ditch run at Earnhardt that turned into their incident.
Said Earnhardt Jr. after the race Saturday: "Everybody knows the deal on that. Everybody knows that’s wrong. You all know what to write. I ain’t writing it for you.''
Here's how Hamlin described what happened:
"I was trying to get to pit road. The problem was if I ran any kind of speed around the race track I was going to drag the sway bar arm off. It went into turn 3 and that's when I totally lost the entire tire. So I stopped, trying to be able to turn it down on to pit road but I had already crossed (by) the wall (that separates the track from the pits). I didn't want to risk tearing up the car to where we couldn't even finish the race, so I knew I had to stop or else I was going to jeopardize even us finishing the race.
Here's how Hamlin described what happened:
"I was trying to get to pit road. The problem was if I ran any kind of speed around the race track I was going to drag the sway bar arm off. It went into turn 3 and that's when I totally lost the entire tire. So I stopped, trying to be able to turn it down on to pit road but I had already crossed (by) the wall (that separates the track from the pits). I didn't want to risk tearing up the car to where we couldn't even finish the race, so I knew I had to stop or else I was going to jeopardize even us finishing the race.
Q: You were just looking to create a caution ...
DENNY: Yeah. Bottom line we had to stop or else we were going to get a DNF because our sway bar arms, the way they're designed is just that they can't stay on that race track for long and we were already dragging it as soon as the tire started going down. It was just one of those deals.
Q: A lot of people said you stopped to help Kyle out.
DENNY: I didn't even know where Kyle was at on the race track. For all I knew he was leading the race. It ended up causing whatever happened there at the end but, hell, if I didn't have that (previous) caution, my tire would have never went flat. So, I guess it will all even itself out in the end.
Q: Do you know what caused the tire to cut?
DENNY: No. I think it just destroyed the tire too bad for us to tell. I rode on it so long. The only chance we had was to stick it out and hope we get a caution before I went a lap down.
Q: Certainly other guys have stopped on the track to create cautions in the past. Is that tactic accepted among drivers or do you, for lack of a better term, need to apologize for or explain?
DENNY: I think everyone has been in that situation, so nobody would say anything to me about stopping. I think they would understand the same thing as I went through. I was already (upset) anyway because I felt like we should have won the race. Regardless if I was running fifth, I would have done the same thing because I pride myself on not getting DNFs and if I would have ran that one lap on that flat tire ... we would have been done. I had to do what I had to do regardless of whether it kind of affected someone else or not.
So there's D Ham's explanation for what happened on Saturday night. I'd rather he pitted before he had to stop on the racetrack..but hindsight's 20/20.
I sure hope that Denny feels better soon. If he needs a 5'6" heating pad or a masseuse I'm available at a moment's notice. Just send the Lear Jet and I'll be right there to make it all better....
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