UPDATE (11:41 p.m. ET) Denny Hamlin has taken to his Twitter page this evening to post a picture of himself giving a thumbs-up while wearing what appears to be a back brace. He later tweeted: “Everyone’s messages to me is the most motivating thing I could see. #humbled”
According to Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press, Hamlin was released from a Southern California hospital this evening. He later told FoxSports.com’s Lee Spencer that he was feeling “definitely better than I was [Sunday] for sure.”
“Really, my first reaction is I felt something pop in my back and that’s why I was really trying to get out of the car as soon as I could because the position I was in … I couldn’t breathe at all,” Hamlin said to Spencer.
“Still having a hard time breathing. When I felt it pop, I couldn’t move at all and I knew I had to get flat to my back to be able to breathe again – so that’s why I rushed out and then just lay flat on the ground to try to start breathing at that point.”
It is not yet known if Hamlin will miss any races as a result of the compression fracture in his L1 vertebrae that he sustained on Sunday at Auto Club Speedway after hitting an inside retaining wall following a last-lap collision with Joey Logano. NASCAR won’t return to action until April 7 at Martinsville Speedway.
UPDATE (3:05 p.m. ET) In a statement this afternoon, Joe Gibbs Racing updated the condition of Denny Hamlin, revealing that he had sustained a compression fracture of the L1 vertebrae following his crash on the final lap of yesterday’s Sprint Cup race at Auto Club Speedway.
Hamlin and Joey Logano were battling for the win when they came together in Turn 4, allowing Kyle Busch to pass them for the victory. While Logano tagged the Turn 4 wall, Hamlin spun down across the track and slammed into an inside retaining wall that was not covered by a SAFER Barrier.
Hamlin was taken to the infield care center in an ambulance and was later airlifted to an undisclosed hospital. In this most recent statement, JGR said that he hopes to be released today and fly home to North Carolina, where he’ll be evaluated by Dr. Jerry Petty of Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine Associates later in the week.
In an earlier statement from Sunday night, the team indicated that Hamlin had been complaining of lower back pain while he was in ACS’ care center.
