Denny Hamlin pulls out of Bristol race with neck injury

By Jenna Fryer, Associated Press

Sunday, April 19, 2015 | 5:24 p.m.

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Denny Hamlin pulled out of Sunday's race at Bristol Motor Speedway because of a neck strain that worsened during a rain delay of nearly four hours.

Hamlin said he felt something strain in his neck 12 laps into the race. The race was stopped for rain on Lap 22, and Hamlin went to his motorhome to see if he could get his neck to feel better.

Instead, it stiffened and he was hardly able to turn his head when NASCAR summoned drivers back to their cars.

"I can't move my head or neck like I need to, and I'm not doing this team any justice if I go out there like this," Hamlin told The Associated Press from the garage. "I have no idea what happened. I think it's just a pull, something where you jerk your head around and you feel a pain. Almost like you slept on it wrong."

Since Hamlin won last month at Martinsville Speedway, he's already earned a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship and didn't see the point in getting back into his No. 11 if he wasn't going to be competitive.

Joe Gibbs Racing turned to 18-year-old Erik Jones, one of its development drivers, to replace Hamlin.

"We've got a win, so go let this kid get some laps," Jones said.

Jones has no Sprint Cup experience, but is coming off his first career Xfinity Series victory last week at Texas.

When the race resumed after a rain delay of 3 hours, 58 minutes, Jones got a few dozen laps before a competition caution gave him a chance to catch his breath. He radioed that the steering wheel was too close, but the team did not have an opportunity to make any adjustments.

Prior to the rain delay, Brad Keselowski wrecked teammate Joey Logano and both Team Penske cars suffered significant damage.

Persistent rain delayed the start more than an hour, and NASCAR rushed to get the event underway during a brief window.

Although it was damp and cold when the race began, there weren't any issues until the 20th lap, when Keselowski spun trying to get around a lapped car. He spun directly into Logano, and both cars were heavily damaged.

Logano, who led all 300 laps Saturday to win the Xfinity Series race, thought Keselowski's issue was a loose car and not rain.

"He just got loose. His car was loose," Logano said. "You could tell from the beginning his car was free and just got a little too much, I guess."

Keselowski was dejected as he looked at both damaged cars.

"I hate racing in the rain, but I understand the position that NASCAR is in. They want to get the race going and this is one of those days where it's going to just keep raining off and on and we're trying to get as many laps in at a time as we can to give the fans the best race possible," Keselowski said.

"But we're racing in the rain to do it and that's what happens."

The incident happened just as it began to rain again, and NASCAR stopped the race to wait out the shower. That delay turned the event into a night race under Bristol's lights, and it went on without Hamlin and Kurt Busch crew chief Tony Gibson, who was battling a kidney stone.

"Watching race in my motorcoach is agonizing!" Gibson tweeted.

The weather ruined what Bristol officials had hoped would be a successful weekend for their spring race.

Once one of the toughest tickets to get in all of sports, Bristol boasted a streak of 55 consecutive sellouts. But attendance has been on a five-year decline for Bristol's spring race in part because of an ever-changing race date that moved the event earlier and earlier into March.

Last year's sparsely-attended race was a water-logged disaster as two rain delays totaled more than five hours. One lap before the finish, the caution lights were inadvertently triggered, and before NASCAR could figure out what had happened or how to finish the race under green, the sky opened again and the event was called with Carl Edwards getting the win.

Bristol Motor Speedway seats 160,000 around its bullring, and the August night race is still one of the top draws in NASCAR.

Convinced the issues for the spring race were weather-related, Speedway Motorsports Inc. owner Bruton Smith had been pushing for the track to be moved back to an April race date.

A scheduling adjustment this season got Bristol back into April — a date that Bristol general manager Jerry Caldwell called "a game changer" — and ticket sales had been brisk until this week when the forecast called for a 100 percent chance of rain on Sunday.