Denny Hamlin has changed his mind and will have surgery to his left knee which was injured in a basketball accident in January.
The surgery to repair a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament will be performed Monday by Dr. Patrick Connor with OrthoCarolina.
Hamlin, who was considered a top contender for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup title is currently 19th in the points.
Before practice for Sunday’s race in Martinsville he said: “We were going to wait until the end of the season, but just decided that it wasn’t a good idea.
“We were doing some further damage to the knee and to me it’s not something that’s worth suffering forever or having a permanent limp or anything like that. It just didn’t make much sense.
“The goal right now is to go ahead and get it done on Monday – as soon as I can early Monday morning,” Hamlin explained.
As NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series races virtually every weekend the issue of recovery came up, but the next race, with a weekend off for Easter is April 10th, Saturday night in Phoenix.
Hamlin was told by his doctor that there is no way to know, beforehand, if he’ll be ready to race as early as next week.
“Right now he says that I’ll be able to get in the car at Phoenix – there’s no doubt that I’ll be able to get in it. It’s just tolerance of pain is what’s going to be the limiting factor. I’m not going to do any further damage to it once it’s done. It’s going to be strictly pain limited,” Hamlin added.
Hamlin said that his Joe Gibbs Racing team will have Casey Mears standing by to fill in if he’s not able to race.
The surgery to repair a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament will be performed Monday by Dr. Patrick Connor with OrthoCarolina.
Hamlin, who was considered a top contender for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup title is currently 19th in the points.
Before practice for Sunday’s race in Martinsville he said: “We were going to wait until the end of the season, but just decided that it wasn’t a good idea.
“We were doing some further damage to the knee and to me it’s not something that’s worth suffering forever or having a permanent limp or anything like that. It just didn’t make much sense.
“The goal right now is to go ahead and get it done on Monday – as soon as I can early Monday morning,” Hamlin explained.
As NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series races virtually every weekend the issue of recovery came up, but the next race, with a weekend off for Easter is April 10th, Saturday night in Phoenix.
Hamlin was told by his doctor that there is no way to know, beforehand, if he’ll be ready to race as early as next week.
“Right now he says that I’ll be able to get in the car at Phoenix – there’s no doubt that I’ll be able to get in it. It’s just tolerance of pain is what’s going to be the limiting factor. I’m not going to do any further damage to it once it’s done. It’s going to be strictly pain limited,” Hamlin added.
Hamlin said that his Joe Gibbs Racing team will have Casey Mears standing by to fill in if he’s not able to race.