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DENNY HAMLIN HANGS TOUGH

As with any major league sport, in NASCAR, sometimes you play hurt. In fact, Sprint Cup racers are legendary for their toughness in the cockpit of a race car.

Which explains why Denny Hamlin isn't going to let a little thing like a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee keep him out of the cockpit of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry. In fact, it doesn’t seem to have slowed him down at all.

Hamlin tore the ligament – which stops a person from falling forward when they plant their foot – in a pickup basketball game in January. Full reconstructive surgery would take 6 to 10 weeks to fully recover from, which is why Hamlin is dealing with a little bit of pain and inconvenience now, but delaying the surgery until the offseason.

“It bothers me more to get to the car than it does actually in it,” says Hamlin. “It’s better in the car than it is out. Sitting in the car, I’m more comfortable than I am anywhere.”

Hamlin uses a specially constructed brace when he's out of the car, but when he's behind the wheel, he's got the toughness thing down, just like every other great Sprint Cup racer.

“Whether it’s been cutting my hand in my rookie season or something like that, all I can remember is not feeling any pain once I’m in the race car,” says Hamlin. “Ultimately, the hand hurt worse than what this will inside a race car. You’ve got to be mentally tough and for me I feel like I’m just so focused inside the race car it didn’t matter if I had a broken leg – I wouldn’t feel anything.”

When it comes to racing through the pain, perhaps it’s one of Hamlin’s fellow Virginians, Ricky Rudd, who defines toughness beyond the call of duty like nobody else. In the 1984 Budweiser Shootout, Rudd suffered a concussion and severe facial bruising in a rollover accident at Daytona International Speedway. Yet the following week, Rudd raced in the Daytona 500 with a separated rib cage and his badly swollen eyes literally duct-taped wide open. He finished seventh.

Some 14 years later, racing at tiny Martinsville Speedway, the combination of unusually high heat and a malfunctioning in-car cooling system dumped water down the back of Rudd’s firesuit, which became extremely hot in the car as the race went on, scalding him badly. Rudd ended the race with severe burns on his back and legs, caused by the hot water.

And, oh by the way, Rudd won the race, giving his post-race interview while lying down in victory lane, taking oxygen and ice to cope with the intense pain.

One of the most famous instances of NASCAR toughness came in 1996, when Dale Earnhardt had a 190 mile-per-hour rollover crash at Talladega Superspeedway and suffered a broken collarbone, bruised pelvis and other internal injuries.

One week later, still in pain that would have kept most people bed-ridden, Earnhardt started the Brickyard 400, but yielded his seat during the first caution flag period to Mike Skinner. Yes, the same Mike Skinner who now drives a Toyota Tundra in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Earnhardt famously fought back tears after he relinquished the seat – not because of his pain, but because it was so hard to step out of the cockpit in mid-race. He’d stayed up late the night before in Indianapolis, watching Clint Eastwood movies to steel himself for the race. But the risk of getting in another crash when he was running for a championship meant he couldn't afford to stay in the car, something that bothered him tremendously.

“The car was really comfortable and I wasn't in much pain riding along there,” said the seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion to ABC pit reporter Dr. Jerry Punch. “The plan was to get him (Skinner) in there just in case something happened, I wouldn't hurt myself anymore.”

And then Earnhardt paused briefly, battling his emotions. “Dadgum, it's hard to get out of there, Jerry,” he told Punch. “It's my life, right here.”

That's just how racers are. Tough. It’s a mindset and a will to win that Denny Hamlin can no doubt empathize with every time he climbs aboard his Camry.

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