Hamlin racing for NASCAR title with torn labrum in shoulder
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Denny Hamlin is racing for a NASCAR championship with a torn labrum in his left shoulder that will require offseason surgery.
Hamlin said Friday he has had shoulder issues for quite some time, and really doesn’t know what caused them. He said the torn tissue hasn’t affected his driving the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
“It’s something that’s been nagging really for years,” said Hamlin, who turns 39 later this month. “It just got to the point where it was really bad, got it scanned and figured out what it was.”
Hamlin said the problem wasn’t aggravated when he got horse-collared and pulled to the ground by a member of Joey Logano’s crew in a scuffle after the race in Virginia last weekend.
The 15-season Cup Series veteran arrived at Texas second in the standings with two races remaining to qualify for the title-deciding finale at Homestead. He has won at Texas three times, including the spring race seven months ago, but is still looking for his Cup title.
Hamlin said he will be ready for the 2020 season-opening Daytona 500. He said the recovery time after surgery is 10 weeks; qualifying at Daytona is Feb. 9, which is 12 weeks after this season’s finale at Homestead.
The pending surgery took Hamlin off the list of possibilities to run for Lexus in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona in January.
Hamlin said the torn labrum, which is cartilage in the ball and socket joint of the shoulder, was progressively feeling worse late in the summer until he got a cortisone shot several weeks ago.
“That’s like my saving grace when this thing started hurting, so that really changed. It went from being immobile to feels like there’s nothing wrong with it,” Hamlin said. “Doctors came a gave me a little bit of relief with that just to kind of get me into the offseason part of things.”
___
AP Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer contributed to this report.
___
More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
