NASCAR All-Star Race 2013: Denny Hamlin’s injury not changing his approach

The 2013 NASCAR All-Star Race is right around the corner, scheduled for Saturday, May 18 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. There aren’t any points on the line, but that doesn’t mean the drivers don’t want to win it all. One such driver is Denny Hamlin, who recently returned from a back injury.

According to NASCAR.com, Hamlin says that he doesn’t plan to alter how he approaches the race, and that he “wants to win.” Hamlin said that he’ll do “everything I can and be as aggressive as I would any other race,” which is probably a good thing to hear for any concerned fans of Hamlin.

Hamlin was the runner-up in the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington last week, in what was his first full race back from his injury. The injury was a vertebra fracture, and it forced him to miss four consecutive races, though he did complete 24 laps the week before at Talladega before giving way to Brian Vickers.

As for his strategy, Hamlin wants to be up front, where there’s generally less chance of getting into an accident. That said, his injury hasn’t robbed him of any of his confidence.

“Really if I didn’t feel like I was going to be 100 percent and be able to go for it with a lot of confidence then I wouldn’t run it,” Hamlin said. He then said that after the last scan on his vertebra, his doctors were comfortable that he could “take a hit here or there.”

Twenty-two drivers are expected to take part in the race, which will span 90 laps over five segments. The first four segments are 20 laps each and the final is just 10 laps, and in All-Star Race tradition, there are some new format changes which are explained by SB Nation’s Jordan Bianchi here.