Denny Hamlin Should Be Just Fine This Week at Phoenix

Denny Hamlin's primary car (JG 263) he'll be using at Phoenix this weekend is the same car that finished third at Phoenix last fall. Should he have any trouble in Friday's practice, he'll be in good shape because the backup is same chassis that he won with at Richmond. Despite the knee surgey last week that may give the appearance Hamlin may not be 100% for this race, this particular car is a monster and should be considered a favorite to win.

HAMLIN CONVERSATION – Phoenix:

Six days after surgery – how is your knee feeling?: “It’s painful – as anyone who has had this surgery or any similar surgery can tell you – but I am working hard to get back my full range of motion and get back to where I need to be. The actual surgery went very well, no issues and no concerns so I owe big thanks to Dr. Connor and his team. They took good care of me and gave me every opportunity to be back in the car this weekend. All I can do now is work hard, follow the rehab program and see how fast I can get back. I have a couple of days yet to see how my knee responds and that will help me make the right decision when I get to Phoenix this weekend.”

What kind of rehab are you doing?: “Right now I am pretty much doing full days of rehab, working to get back my full range of motion, keeping the knee flexible and working to make it stronger while I get more comfortable with what I can and can’t do right now. I spend three hours on the machine working on my range and I am making a lot of progress. It gets better every day and I know I am ahead of schedule for a surgery like this. I do a lot of work on my back, working my quad and stretching and spend a lot time icing it too. It’s coming around but it’s a long and hard process and I knew that was going to be the case. It’s not fun but I know that doing this now was absolutely the right thing to do – now I am focused on getting back to racing.”

How important was that Martinsville win, both in terms of getting the season back on track and giving this team a boost before your surgery?: “The win felt like a long time coming even though we are only six races into this season. There were really high expectations coming off last season and every race where we didn’t run as well as we wanted seemed to lead to more questions and concerns from outside of the team. Inside, we weren’t panicking because we had been pretty good in almost every race. To win at Martinsville sets some of that aside I hope. The win points us in the right direction and takes us into what will be our next challenge of getting past this knee surgery but it’s a long season and a lot can happen. We know we have a lot of work left to do.”