“I was in so much pain in Calif. hospital I thought it may never go away. I thought I might be done forever.”

Since sustaining an injury to his back last weekend at Auto Club Speedway, Denny Hamlin said that he is feeling 80% percent better since that Sunday.

Hamlin will miss this weekend’s race at Martinsville, and possibly the next four races, due to a 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.

The pair were running against each other for the lead in the final laps when Kyle Busch would sneak past them and take the win. However behind Busch, the pair continued to battle and made contact off of turn four. The resulting contact caused Logano to bounce off the wall and Hamlin to go flying into the inside wall. The wall that Hamlin hit had no safer barrier and caused the car to come up off the ground. Hamlin was credited with a 25th with Logano got third.

Hamlin says he doesn’t remember the impact with the wall as he closed his eyes before he hit it. He also added that NASCAR is studying how his injury happened in the course of the wreck, not believing that it was based on Hamlin’s direct hit on the wall. Hamlin said he believes the fracture occurred on the recoil, when the wheels came up off of the ground. Hamlin also added that he probably wouldn’t be in the same situation if that wall was a SAFER barrier.

“You really don’t appreciate the SAFER barriers as much until you don’t hit one,” he says. “I remember thinking as I was heading toward it — I’m going to hit it. It’s not going to be life-changing or anything, because I didn’t think I was going that fast. But I didn’t recognize that it was a non-SAFER barrier (wall) until watching it on TV, and then you realize, wow, now I know why it hurt so bad. So yeah, it’s definitely a must at every race track. … It would have probably changed my outcome had it been a SAFER barrier there.”

Hamlin’s previous back problems have been discussed since the wreck. Hamlin had back spasms last year due to torn and bulging disks, which caused him to sit out the Nationwide Series race last July at Daytona and some of Sprint Cup Daytona practice. However, he says that injury did not play into the injury at California.

While the first release stated that Hamlin will probably be out six weeks – five races – Hamlin is hoping that he can be ready to run at his home track of Richmond in three weeks.

“Every doctor has left it a possibility that you could heal quicker than six weeks,” he said. “It’s possible.”

Hamlin stated that if he were to return to the driver’s seat, he could handle the pain. However, he is not returning yet as there is a chance that he could do worse damage if he takes another hit.

“You have to look at the bigger picture,” he said. “It’s tough for me to swallow that now. I have to make sure I’m able to sustain another hit.

“There’s no exact science to knowing when a bone is fully healed. All they can tell is when it starts mending itself, then they’re good to go. As long as they see that crack, they can’t let me go.”

As a result, Hamlin says he just has to accept it and wait it out.

“If it’s four weeks or six or 12, I just have to accept it,” he said. “I’ll change my outlook at the track when I’m able to get back in the car.”

Hamlin also added that he hasn’t discussed the idea of returning earlier than schedule with the doctors, not wanting to freak them out. Though he is doing what he can from his end, noting that walking is good for bone growth and he has been walking around a park the last couple of days.

While he has been working with Dr. Jerry Petty, he has also spoke with Dr. Trammel in Indianapolis, who helped Dario Franchitti with compression fracture injury.