Denny Hamlin will have knee surgery to repair his torn anterior cruciate ligament on Monday, Joe Gibbs Racing said in a statement Saturday morning.
Denny Hamlin To Have Knee Surgery On Torn ACL Monday
Hamlin tore the ACL in his left knee playing basketball in January, but had planned to wait until the end of the season to have surgery.
“When we first reviewed the situation, we thought Denny couldn’t do any further damage to his knee if he waited to have surgery, but as the season progressed we determined that the best plan of action was to go ahead and have it repaired,” JGR team president J.D. Gibbs said in a statement. “Hopefully this will take care of the situation and he should get stronger each week.”
The team said Hamlin is expected to race in Phoenix when the Sprint Cup Series schedule resumes in two weeks.
However, this raises some immediate questions:
• Are Hamlin’s Chase hopes over? Hamlin is 19th in points and is without a top-10 finish all season. Having major knee surgery at this point would seem to doom his chances at making the Chase, even if he starts the races to get points each week and turns the wheel over to a relief driver.
• Who will be his backup driver? Recovery from a surgery like this requires intense physical therapy just to restore range of motion in the knee. It’s highly unlikely Hamlin will be able to drive 500-mile races in his condition and will need a relief driver after the races begin. But what driver currently not in the Cup Series is capable of getting the No. 11 team into the Chase? Brad Coleman only has one career Cup start; Matt DiBenedetto is ‘The Future,’ but that future isn’t now. Casey Mears? David Stremme? J.J. Yeley?
• Is this a move geared toward this year or next year? Probably both. It reduces the risk of Hamlin doing further damage to his knee now, but by having the surgery at this point, it gives Hamlin a chance to be fully recovered by the start of next season. Knee surgery like this often takes six-to-eight months’ recovery time before athletes in other sports can return.
See More:
