Denny Hamlin trying to avoid surgery following end of season - MotorSportsTalk

Denny Hamlin is looking toward the off-season as his best opportunity to get 100 percent healthy after what has been a very painful 2013 campaign.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver missed four full races while recuperating from a compression fracture in his back that he sustained in March during a last-lap crash at Auto Club Speedway.

Unfortunately for him, a chronic problem with bulging discs means that his back is still giving him pain, and according to the NASCAR Wire Service, surgery is still an option.

“I had some treatment done two weeks ago that usually lasts me about a month to a month and a half,” Hamlin said Thursday to the NWS’ Reid Spencer. “Just basically got some shots to relieve pain, and hopefully what it’s going to do is buy me a month and a half of relief to get healthy. The problem with our schedule is that I don’t have enough time at home to rehab and do all the things I need to do to get better, so I need the offseason.”

“Now I’ve got some relief. The last two weeks have been really great, as far as pain is concerned, so now I’m hoping this next month and a half – from now until the end of the season – I can spend time doing all the hard regimen stuff that I can do. That way I’ll see, if it’s not relieved by the end of that month-and-a-half term, whether I will need surgery or not.”

Hamlin finished second in his first full race back from his compression fracture injury at Darlington, but has had a dreadful second half of the season. His 12th-place finish last weekend at New Hampshire was his best result since June at Michigan – a span of 14 races.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”