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[/media-credit]In Thursday testing at Kansas Speedway in anticipation for the race this weekend, Denny Hamlin would suffer a hard crash that would have him feeling dizzy. During the first hour of testing, Hamlin lost control in turn one and hit the turn two wall.
“It was the third lap on sticker (new) tires, and a little treacherous, and really, I just clipped the right rear on the outside wall on corner entry,” Hamlin said. “When I did, it just shot the car to the apron. I tried to correct and overcorrected got into the outside fence.”
He would drive the car back to the garage area, though was advised to go see NASCAR infield care center personnel by a NASCAR official.
“There were a couple of NASCAR officials that analyze the car after a wreck,” Hamlin said. “[A NASCAR official] looked at the car and said that it would probably be wise to go, after looking at the car. Obviously, the car’s destroyed pretty good.”
The result would be a pair of trips as a result of Hamlin feeling “dizzy” after the crash.
“The medical staff can’t do their job unless I tell them exactly what’s go on,” Hamlin said. “They may as well not be here if I am going to tell them stories and give a false sense of security to them. I’m honest with them. I knew that I was fine.”
The symptoms had passed by the time he paid his second visit to the care center and Hamlin was cleared to return to the track, now behind the wheel of his backup car.
“Just standard procedure, really — nothing different from than I’ve ever seen before,” Hamlin said. “I was just slightly dizzy after the first hit. After that, just came back, and everything’s cleared right up. So it’s definitely good. I feel fine now…….But simply because of the speed of the impact, I think they were just trying to be safe and asking me how I felt, and I was honest with them and said I was a little dizzy.
“And they said, ‘Well, come back in an hour and make sure you’re OK.’… It was the first time I really had some dizziness after a hit. Usually, I’m sore, or your jaw hurts from clenching your jaw, things like that, but this was the first time I got really dizzy.”
Some may question whether Hamlin should sit out and go for further evaluation as a result of feeling dizzy, or even possible sit out a weekend with the concerns surrounding concussions as of late. Last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. admitting he had two back-t0-back concussions after incidents at Kansas and Talladega, and as a result, sidelined for at least two weeks.
Hamlin would compare the incident to a previous incident he had – October 2008 at Talladega – where he blew a tire while leading.
“We went to the hospital, got a MRI and had a slight concussion there,” Hamlin said. “That was similar but … I feel much better than I did after the Talladega one.”
Hamlin added that he would have eventually gone to the infield care center himself, if he felt the need, as I wouldn’t want to endanger himself or anyone. He would then go on to say that he doesn’t believe that most competitors would follow Earnhardt Jr.’s lead and voluntarily step out of a car if they had a concussion.
“That will be the continued challenge of it is that no matter how you feel, or anything like that, you’re just not going to want to step out of your car,” Hamlin said. “I think that he was generally worried for himself and knew how he felt. He made the decision evidently to pull himself out. I don’t think drivers will treat it any different. I think that they’ll just do the same things that they’ve been doing.”
The question will be whether Hamlin can turn things around and run well on Sunday to continue his bid for the championship as he currently sits third in points. The back-up car was last raced in the Chase opener at Chicagoland, where Hamlin ran near the front all day before running out of fuel and ending up 16th. He would end the day 12th on the speed charts.
