For the first time since his wreck at Auto Club Speedway earlier this year, Denny Hamlin is back behind the seat of the racecar and says it’s feels really good to get back in and run some laps.

“I’m thankful for everything Brian (Vickers) has done over these last four weeks and what he’s going to do this weekend,” he added. “We appreciate that and FedEx for sticking through it with us and obviously showing us a lot of support.  So, it’s definitely good to be back in a car and really just starting with hopefully what will be a good run in these next 17 weeks.”

Hamlin added that despite not liking superspeedway practice and racing, he couldn’t sleep last night knowing he’d be back in the car.

“This is an exciting time and obviously if it wasn’t for my crew chief (Darian Grubb), I would’ve stayed out there until I ran out of gas,” Hamlin comented. “It still — it’s exciting for me.  The excitement will really be big when we get to Darlington next week.”

Hamlin added that he couldn’t sleep due that thirst to feel the speed again.

“We have alligator blood,” he continued. “I don’t know what to say.  It’s just we’re a different breed that are willing to throw caution to the wind just to get back to what we love doing.”

Hamlin was sidelined after suffering an L1 Compression Fracture to his back following his crash on the last lap at Auto Club Speedway after contact with Joey Logano. The compression fracture is located in his lower back and occurs when a vertebrae in the spine collapses. It is an injury that can occur in people who are healthy when they suffer a vertical shock to the area.

Hamlin made hard direct head on contact with an inside wall at the track located in Fontana, California following contact with Joey Logano while racing for the win.

Hamlin says he feels no discomfort while he is in the car. The only thing that’s uncomfortable is climbing out through the driver’s window, so that’s the team opted to put in the roof hatch. The roof hatch was developed a couple seasons ago by NASCAR and is optional for teams to run every week.

“It’s much easier on me, and really any kind of twisting we can keep out of myself will be good,” he said. “Really, inside the race car I feel just like I did six, seven weeks ago.  Excited about this weekend and finally getting back going again.”

Hamlin will not run the full distance on Sunday, opting to start the race to get the points and then get out under the first caution, allowing Brian Vickers to get in. They have timed the driver change and Hamlin says it took them one minute and six second twice in a row.

“There’s going to be a caution at some point and I’d like to get out to just insure myself of one more week of healing versus trying to come back in the middle of round six,” he commented.

To get this point to where he is now, Hamlin has been working on his back and spine area in rehab.

“It’s working on your core strength,” he said of the activities during rehab. “Just working on your hamstring.  Everything that supports the back is what we’ve been working on, so really my rehab has been basically workout sessions.  Not anything unordinary you wouldn’t see at a normal gym.  Been working a little bit on — they have this traction machine that kind of works on your spine.  I’ve been on that.  I’ve been on a bone stimulator every day, so there’s a lot of little gadgets and whatnot that I’ve been on, but it’s been pretty easy.”

Hamlin added that he does plan to run the full distance next weekend at Darlington Raceway.

“We had an amazing group of doctors that looked my scans over, saw me in person and obviously it wasn’t a full consensus for Richmond, so we decided to err on the safe side,” Hamlin commented on the process. “And, knowing basically what we were going to do this weekend was going to be the equivalent of a quarterback basically hiking the ball and taking a knee we were going to very much minimize our risks this weekend of reinjuring ourselves, which gives us one more week to then heal.  We’re going to rescan next week and obviously just make sure everything is still intact and everything is where it needs to be.”

Hamlin says that he has dealt with the emotions of being out of the car and now is excited about the challenge that lies ahead of him. In the next 17 weeks, Hamlin wants to get himself qualified into the Chase. The plan is to get into the top 20 of the points standings with two victories by the 26th race of the schedule to qualify. Hamlin currently sits 28th in points, 71 points out of 20th. The maximum points you can get for a race – by leading the most laps and winning – is 48.

“I think that our Chase has got to start right now,” Hamlin said. “We’ve got to perform each week like it is a Chase race and do everything that we can to get wins, because if we don’t win it really doesn’t matter.  We’ve got some great tracks ahead of us.  That part of it is exciting.”

Jeff Gordon didn’t finish the season opening Daytona 500 the way he had hoped, but he still remembers a lot from that race. Quite vividly, since Gordon admits it was a tough day at the speedway.

He finished 20th after fading late but after leading 31 laps. When it came time to decide the winner however, Gordon wasn’t around as teammates Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished first and second. But this weekend, however, past lessons learned will be applied as soon as the green flag waves over the Talladega Superspeedway.

“It was hard to pass in Daytona and it’s not that it’s just hard to pass, it’s that nobody wanted to get out of line,” Gordon said Friday on the importance of track position.

“Everybody kind of protected their position until those crucial moments in the closing laps. I think that there could be some more of that this weekend and I made some mistakes by getting a little bit over-confident that we could make some moves with some other cars and drive to the front.

“Until we see that happen there, I think it’s going to be more of start up front, try to have good, solid pit stops and strategy and stay up front and go after it in the closing laps.”

Much of the Daytona 500 was single-file racing, drivers lined up against the outside wall. Laps were logged until they felt it was time to make their move. It’s what helped Gordon lead the laps he did, as he took the lead at the green flag and had easy sailing.

The debut of NASCAR’s new Generation6 car was met with mixed reviews, for Gordon as the series heads to their second of four plate races this season, he’s expecting exactly what took place in Daytona.

“No. The only thing that is different is this is a wider racetrack,” Gordon replied when asked if Talladega would be any different.

“You don’t have to worry about handling where handling was a little bit of an issue at Daytona. You don’t have to worry about that at all here. You might be able to push a little big more aggressively and we’ll look at the temps, but I think it’s going to be just as challenging and difficult to jump out of line and to get a line formed on that inside to move up there.”

Not that it won’t happen, Gordon acknowledged, but there hasn’t been enough drivers willing to take the risk to do so. Track position was much more important and drivers became committed to the lane all the way up against the wall. Something Gordon’s preparing himself for again.

A six-time winner at the 2.66-mile superspeedway, he’s seen and experienced it all. Coming from the back, dominating up front and being showered in beer cans after a controversial 2004 ending.

“The first time I came here, I came with moderate confidence because of our success at Daytona that year,” said Gordon. “We ran up front. I don’t remember how we ended up here in that first race, but you definitely have to treat this slightly different than Daytona because it’s bigger, wider, faster and the drafting is slightly different.

“What moves you’re able to make as a driver, just because of the security the car has here is a little big different. Over the years, certainly that confidence is built because of our success, but at the same time the cars have changed, packages have changed, how you win at Talladega has changed.

“We were close a couple of years ago and hopefully we can be smart and make some good moves and get ourselves back in a position. All you want at a track like this is to have yourself in position to be able to make some of those moves and hope that your momentum carries and you get a good finish and maybe even a win.”

Win is what Gordon has yet to do this season. He’s currently 14th in points and climbing, much like he did a season ago. But he hasn’t won in Alabama since 2007, which also happens to be the last time he won at a restrictor plate track.

First though, comes qualifying for the Aaron’s 499 which will take place on Saturday at 12:10 p.m. Eastern Time.

The No.88 National Guard Chevrolet driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., is no stranger to success at Talladega Superspeedway.  With five wins at Talladega, nine top five finishes and thirteen top ten finishes, Earnhardt Jr. has the second-best driver rating at Talladega of 89.6. Despite his success at Talladega, Earnhardt Jr. has also experienced the chaos often associated with restrictor-plate races.

The common phrase used when describing NASCAR restrictor-plate races is “checkers or wreckers.”  The driver and his race car either take the checkered flag and head to victory lane, or the race car ends up on a wrecker, having been collected in whatever late-race chaos that typically occurs at tracks like Talladega.  Earnhardt Jr. became more familiar with the “wreckers” scenario during a final-lap crash in the October race at Talladega last season.  The crash resulted in Earnhardt Jr. suffering a concussion, which was his second concussion during a six week time span.  The concussions forced Earnhardt Jr. to miss two races, which ended his hopes for a Sprint Cup Series Championship.

Six months later Earnhardt seems to be healthy and hopeful for a good performance Sunday in the Aaron’s 499 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.  When asked about his outlook for this weekend, Earnhardt Jr. said, “Really have had a lot of success here, a lot of great runs.  Always feel confident when we come here that we are going to have a good car, going to know how to use it and I think we feel that way coming into this weekend.  We had a great run at Daytona.  Feel like as far as a company goes Hendrick Motorsports has done a great job with this car at these particular race tracks.  Our confidence level is real good, real high.  Just looking forward to getting a little practice in, make sure everything is working the way it is supposed to.  Probably won’t run a whole lot, but the weather here is going to be odd all weekend.  Hopefully, we get an opportunity to race on Sunday and go to Victory Lane.  We really feel like we have a good shot at it and feel like it is about that time for us to win one here at Talladega.”

Defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Brad Keselowski and his Penske Racing team have received more than their share of media attention in the past several weeks. NASCAR found what it deemed illegal rear end parts on both Penske team cars at Texas Motor Speedway. Each team was docked 25 points and fined the crew chiefs $100,000 each. More importantly, NASCAR suspended crew chiefs, car chiefs, engineers and competition directors from both teams for seven weeks. Penske appealed the penalties and had their first hearing Wednesday.

The appeals board voted unanimously to uphold the penalties handed down from NASCAR. Roger Penske immediately announced that the team would take their appeal further and plead their case to John Middlebrook, NASCAR’s chief appellate officer. This will be the final opportunity for Penske to get a reduction of the penalties. NASCAR spokesman, Kerry Tharp, announced the final will be heard on Tuesday May 7, 2013. Middlebrook approved the request for the suspended team members to attend Talladega.

Keselowski has quite an impressive resume’ here at Talladega. In just eight starts he has two wins, three top fives, and six top tens! The Miller Lite team hasn’t skipped a beat this weekend. Keselowski was 11th in the first practice and led final practice on Friday. The team is obviously staying as focused as possible and trying maintain business as usual.

It seems when Brad and his No.2 Miller Lite team find themselves in high pressure situations, they come out swinging! (Remember what happened when Brad broke his foot!?) I look for this team to perform well at Talladega and keep performing well even if they lose their appeal. As strange as it sounds, putting this team at a disadvantage, just may lead to Keselowski being a repeat champion!