If you have ever harbored the mistaken impression that race car drivers aren't as tough as 10-year-old beef jerky -- and a little crazy, too -- check out what Denny Hamlin is doing.
Hamlin is racing -- and racing well -- with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He is among the final dozen drivers in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup and has as good a chance as anyone to win this year's series championship.
Chase race pushed back a day by rain
CONCORD, N.C. — The opening race of the second round of NASCAR’s playoffs was washed out by rain Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The race was rescheduled for 11:30 a.m. today and will be televised on NBC Sports Network. Saturday’s postponement marked the second rainout of the Sprint Cup season. Matt Kenseth will start from the poll.
That injured right leg is the one that presses the gas pedal, yet Hamlin has every intention of flooring it again today at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Bank of America 500.
"My knee is good," Hamlin said this week. "Walking around is fine. Just when I'm in a hurry and try to run somewhere, it doesn't work."
When he drives somewhere in a hurry, though, it does work. Aided by one of the sport's best pit crews, Hamlin won NASCAR's All-Star race in May at Charlotte before his injury. Less than two weeks after he tore his ACL, he won the first Chase playoff race of the year at Chicagoland.
Hamlin is Michael Jordan's favorite driver. The two have become friends in Charlotte, where Hamlin is a steady courtside presence at Hornets games.
Jordan texted Hamlin with a pep talk from Monte Carlo recently, according to the driver, and MJ was Hamlin's guest and cheered him on at the season-ending race in Homestead, Fla., last season. Hamlin made it to the final four in 2014 but lost to Kevin Harvick in the finale.
Hamlin, 34, has finished in NASCAR's season-ending top 10 in seven of the past eight seasons, but he has never won an overall championship. If Hamlin pulls off the 2015 title with an ACL tear, that would be fairly incredible. He said his knee doesn't hurt when he is driving, but that it bothers him when he gets out of the car after driving 500 miles.
He immediately puts his knee into a machine that compresses it and ices it after each race.
"There's no running for me, no jumping, things like that," Hamlin said. "I still don't have my full leg strength back because my head still knows that my leg is injured, so it is correcting for it. But right now I'm really not hampered inside the race car."
Hamlin has postponed ACL surgery until after the season, and he has no intention of giving up recreational basketball. Hamlin loves basketball enough to play in a local rec league, and now he has torn the ACL in both his right and left knees while playing the sport.
The last ACL injury didn't derail him either. Hamlin tore the ACL in his left knee before the 2010 season, had surgery and didn't miss a race. He ended up winning a career-high eight times that year but finished second to Jimmie Johnson in the points championship.
Hamlin likes basketball so much that he said he will wait until when and if he wrecks his knee a third time before quitting the sport.
It isn't wrong of him to play basketball in his free time. It hasn't seemed to hurt his results and it certainly isn't as dangerous as driving a race car. But one has to wonder why he is so determined to keep playing and why he keeps getting hurt.
"It's the competitive side of me," Hamlin said. "I also just think that I'm such an idiot, I don't play within my skill level. I always try to do more.
"I've told all the people in this rec league that I will not be playing defense anymore. That's where my injuries have all come from. I've got to play within myself, realize I'm not 25 anymore, and I'll be fine."
In the meantime, Hamlin has to try to win a championship on a bum knee.
"I'm selfish, and I want to get myself a win, but really I want to get Joe Gibbs Racing a victory," Hamlin said. "It's been since 2005 since anybody has won a championship there. That was the first year I came into the Cup series, and I know Joe has really worked hard to get another championship. He spares no expense doing that.
"I'd like to be the one to get him that championship."
Then the celebration could begin. A burnout in the infield. A hug in Victory Lane. And, of course, knee surgery.
Sports on 10/11/2015