Hamlin Set For 500 Miles At Darlington

Hamlin is a former Darlington winner

Denny Hamlin lasted just 24 laps last Sunday at Talladega before turning over his No. 11 Fed Ex Toyota to relief driver Brian Vickers under the race's first caution flag. 

Tomorrow night at Darlington Raceway, he’s going for the full monty. 

Both Hamlin and his doctors say he is sufficiently healed to go the distance in the Bojangles Southern 500, after suffering a compression fracture of his first lumbar vertebra in a last-lap crash at Auto Club Speedway in late March. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver announced Wednesday that he has been cleared for competition, tweeting, “"More good news after this week’s scan. Healing is going really good and I'm ready to go the distance this week. #makethechase" 

Hamlin, who won the Southern 500 here in 2010 and finished second to Jimmie Johnson last year, will make his eighth career Darlington Sprint Cup Series start Saturday night, wheeling a #11 Toyota with sponsorship from Sport Clips.

 

His best -- and possibly only -- chance to make the 2013 Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup is to climb back into the Top-10 in championship points, while winning enough races to claim one of two available Wild Card slots. He is currently 31st in the Sprint Cup Series standings --76 points out of the Top-20 -- and has yet to win a race.