NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Denny Hamlin is uncertain whether he will run in the Busch Wright Clash at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on February 4 after undergoing surgery on his right shoulder on November 22. .
“I’m a long way from where I should be,” Hamlin said Thursday ahead of the NASCAR Awards at Music City Center.
Hamlin’s right arm is in a sling.
“I thought I would recover for three or four weeks, like I had before,” Hamlin said of his left shoulder surgery in 2019. “(I came out) knowing that I had major damage that needed to be fixed. I decided to change up my offseason a little bit from working on some tracks that had been so-so in the simulator so far. Probably it won’t happen now.
“It’s just a few things that will change and probably the first lap on the track will be whatever we do in February. Do we need to analyze the crash? Maybe when the time comes, I’ll ask… Because apparently they don’t want me to load it up for three months. Obviously, that timeline doesn’t line up (with the crash).”
With more than two months until the exhibition race, Hamlin and doctors have plenty of time to evaluate his potential to compete in the crash. After this event, he will next need to get in the car for his 500 qualifying at Daytona on February 14th.
Hamlin finished fifth in points last season, but said he suffered bone spurs and tendon damage in his shoulder and suffered a sprained rotator cuff injury late in the season. He ruptured two tendons while in Las Vegas during the F1 weekend and underwent surgery shortly after.
Hamlin said his shoulder injury affected his car.
“It hurt,” Hamlin said. “There were many times when we were told to turn it on, but we couldn’t reach it or touch it. We were certainly at a disadvantage.
“One thing I can say is I didn’t want to use this as an excuse for not making the finals or anything like that. I really think our performance was the best we’ve had as far as we’ve been on track. We did everything we could to be successful. We just didn’t get it done.”
Hamlin said every time his shoulder feels numb before a race. “Our performance was really, really good. This is one of the things that I always grew up as a right-handed driver and really, through the playoffs, I had to switch to just being a left-handed driver with my left hand on the wheel. Yes, it was. It was certainly different.”