Physical therapy on hold for Denny Hamlin, but he's ready to race at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin said he still hasn’t been able to start physical therapy because he cannot bend his left knee enough to go cycling or swimming.
Hamlin tore the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee playing basketball on Jan. 22. He won’t have surgery until after the 2010 NASCAR season. He said he has 80 percent of the strength in his leg.
“Rehab will help a ton,” Hamlin said Thursday during NASCAR Media Day at Daytona International Speedway. “Swimming and cycling are the two best. I can’t yet because I’m not as mobile as what I’d like. I can get 90 degrees and I can get my leg almost horizontal. That range of motion should be twice that.
“Until I get my range of motion back, that’s when I’ll start that [rehab].”
Hamlin has not been able to get in any sort of racing vehicle to see how he might feel with the braking.
“I haven’t sat in anything competitive – go-karting, a race car, no testing [anything] since Homestead [in November],” Hamlin said. “It will be interesting to see how things work. But all I can go by is sitting in a race car in the race shop, I feel as comfortable as I did last year.”
Because everything else around the knee is in good shape, Hamlin said he will not need to have it scoped. He is wearing a brace on his leg and has a specifically manufactured brace to drive the car although he’s not sure he’ll be able to race with it.
“The confines of the cockpit are so small that in case of an emergency, especially a wreck, you have to make an abrupt move with your feet to hit the brakes,” Hamlin said. “You have to have that mobility. The brace takes a little bit of that away.”
It will be good for Hamlin to have Daytona as his first race because it shouldn’t be too trying on his knee.
“There’s no better place I can be than Daytona as far as the leg is concerned,” Hamlin said. “I’ve been talking to doctors and everything like that about when I get to California, the limb should be more normal, … especially now that I have a daily brace that I’ll be wearing.”
He said his knee gave out twice before he was able to get a brace on it. He said it happened after he had been on his feet for a couple of hours.
“For me basically, I’ve got to figure out a different way to have cardio,” Hamlin said. “What bothers me the most about it is I won’t be able to do the things I love to do. Everybody has a hobby outside of racing and if you told them they couldn’t do it for a year and a half, it would bother them.”
This isn’t the first time that Hamlin has raced hurt. He cut his hand a few years ago. He said he also battled back problems, which are hereditary, last year, in addition to a sore right knee. He also had surgery to the meniscus in his right knee in December, but said he didn’t think that impacted this injury, which occurred when he tried to make a move on the basketball court.
“It’s been mostly back stuff and leg stuff,” Hamlin said. “I understand I’m a race-car driver, but it’s like telling Dale Jarrett that he can’t play golf. … Nobody is going to tell me I can’t play basketball.”
