Denny Hamlin has compression fracture of L1 vertebrae

Fact is we're all speculating,,unless you're a ortho/neuro surgeon who has examined him.
We know squat right now. Personally if I was him I'd hang it up. He's had back problems before. Next little bump could put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He now has a kid. Time to weigh risk vs reward.
He's not a blue collar worker struggling, his earnings from just last year total almost 7 mil and he got maybe half. And that's just from last year. Truth be told he's already made more than enough to live very comfortably for the rest of his life.
But there's that competitive drive to contend with. So I don't know if I'd hang it up or not if I was him. Very tough decision to make.
 
FenderBumper said:
Obviously we're talking about what he should do if he's permitted to get in the car. :rolleyes:

If he's not allowed in the car, what is there to discuss? nascar and the Dr. will allow a low level of added risk when racing, but I wouldn't race a full race until it's 90% healed. A fracture, if that diagnosis holds true, is a crack without seperation. They will try to determine how deep and long the crack is and if there is any nerve or spinal pressure.
Click to expand...

What? I have worked as a medic for 35 years and never knew this. How do you explain a compound open fracture?
 
Bobw said:
Cortisone shots help you deal with pain. If it doesn't hurt you have a tendency to overdo and that can slow down healing or even cause further damage.
Click to expand...

When my back was at its worst, they were giving me all sorts of tests that were quite uncomfortable and this was just to find out how bad the damage was. I was scheduled to go in for a myelogram which at the time (1970s) was a procedure that could also cause problems if you moved during the process.

Anyways, re cortisone, the pain was getting so bad my family GP gave me a cortisone shot right in the pain center to help me get through the weekend before my Monday procedure. My back was all of a sudden normal, I could not believe it. The doc told me this was only temporary and the pain would return so I was to take it easy and see what the myelogram found.....

.....on Monday my back was still normal. I cancelled the myelogram. The doc said he must have just hit the "right spot". I have had soreness with the area off an on since but nothing like before the shot (nor any other symptoms I had been experiencing with breathing/digestion). That was my first and only cortisone shot for my broken back so in my case it worked out.
 
Smoke14 said:
What? I have worked as a medic for 35 years and never knew this. How do you explain a compound open fracture?
Click to expand...

OK, I looked it up instead of going by an old memory. A bone fracture seems to be just part of the description. Hairline, simple, compound, displaced etc, are used to describe the severity. I don't remember anything more being said about Denny's injure than it was a fracture, so I can't say it was a hairline fracture or a clean break. My bad.
 
..injury expert? heck, we all could be one of those, we're all experts, right? And we all have been injured..so "I think Joey is faking it", I am an injury expert..right, What he REALLY needs is a shrink, after he reads all of this.
 
Quackjack said:
Why must people thrust God into everything? God didn't save Hamlin's live, the people who actually built, tested and released the life-saving equipment did. How about giving THEM some credit for once?
Click to expand...

Quackjack... That particular phrase was a figure of speech, not an attempt to, as you so eloquently put it, "...thrust God into everything..."!

As if I have to say it, there's no question, all the people involved, from the car designers, to the builders and testers... the designers and makers of the safety equipment... right up to the emergency workers, doctors and nurses, I'm sure I left several dozen people out (didn't want to make it sound like an Oscar acceptance speech), had a major part to play in preventing Hamlin from suffering a more serious injury, or even death.

All that being said, I'll just have to run the risk of your displeasure.... anyway, back top the topic at hand.
 
Was just reading this.....

"He's going to spend tomorrow looking at scans to distinguish what the next step is," Hamlin said.

"We're kind of leaving the analyzing for him on what to do either surgery-wise or just stick with a brace and let it heal itself. Either way, obviously, both of them take a lot of time."

When he was being discharged, Hamlin tried to lift his feet into a position as if they were on the pedals and hold his hands as if he was holding a steering wheel – just to see what he could do. But even if he could drive, there could be several obstacles to a return, he noted.

First, NASCAR policy requires drivers to be off pain medications while they race. At this point, Hamlin said, that would be "really tough."

Second, Hamlin would have to figure out how to climb into the driver's seat with all of his bracing – there's no way he can race without it right now, because he "can't be twisted in any way," he said.
"I don't want to make it worse," he said. "It's not worth that."
Click to expand...

From here.
 
Why wouldn't it, if the rights have all the weight on them and the lefts don't. on a straight panic stop, the rear tires will lock up first because the weight transfer is thrown up front. If Danny didn't or wasn't pushing on the brake very hard, still trying to control his skid, he didn't want to lock it down. I think he was trying to get it straightened back out and he ran out of room.
 
FenderBumper said:
Hard to tell, but it doesn't explain the tires rolling on one side of the car and not the other.
Click to expand...
The left side of Denny's car lifted when Joey plowed him, If Denny was on the brake at all it would have had an effect when the left tires lost contact. Hard to say for sure.
 
BobbyFord said:
The left side of Denny's car lifted when Joey plowed him, If Denny was on the brake at all it would have had an effect when the left tires lost contact. Hard to say for sure.
Click to expand...



It just seems wierd. Joey hits more to the front, and it's not all that hard. Denny has the lefts locked from then on and turns hard left, of course. The rights don't lock until he's well on the apron. That's 60 or 70 feet. Very strange. Maybe he broke a left rotor and it locked, but he didn't realize and tried to save the car, thus the late braking?
 
Yeah, I think once he realized he wasn't going to be able to save it, he locked it down. From his perspective that inside fence was approaching rapidly :eek:
 
Marty Smith‏@MartySmithESPN49m
NASCAR engineers have been in contact with Gibbs re: DH's car. Darby had no info. on that meeting.
 
Looks like to me his rears locked up first when he was going toward the inside wall, probably had a lot of rear brake dialed in to it, and all of them were locked up when he hit. He was standing on the brake so all that shock transferred up thru his leg, ouch, I know how that feels. I didn't see his hands off the wheel either before he hit.
 
BobbyFord said:
Yeah, I think once he realized he wasn't going to be able to save it, he locked it down. From his perspective that inside fence was approaching rapidly :eek:
Click to expand...

Yep. I bet a rotor blew out and jammed the left side brakes and he never stood a chance of saving it.
 
StandOnIt said:
Looks like to me his rears locked up first when he was going toward the inside wall, probably had a lot of rear brake dialed in to it, and all of them were locked up when he hit. He was standing on the brake so all that shock transferred up thru his leg, ouch, I know how that feels.
Click to expand...

I wonder how much that ramp in front the the wall played in all this. It really made it an upward impact rather than head-on.
 
made it a different angle..big direction change right before the hit..bunch of crap..first thing Larry Mac said was no safer barrier. The car can't do it all, you have to spread the "period" of the impact out
 
StandOnIt said:
made it a different angle..big direction change right before the hit..bunch of crap..first thing Larry Mac said was no safer barrier. The car can't do it all, you have to spread the "period" of the impact out
Click to expand...

Spread a bit too much to Denny's back. Probably slammed his back down into the seat as much as his chest foward and into the belts.
 
yeah and at the same time he got the full impact thru his arms and leg on the brake. He is sore for sure.
 
honu said:
I must admit, when I first saw the crash, it looked to me like Logano took Hamlin out... and in the process, was graced by a benevolent God, that he didn't end up killing him.

The more I watched replays, the less convinced I am that Logano spun Hamlin intentionally as a pay back, and more of a mind he was driving way, WAY over his head and just plain ran out of driving ability. Logano's problem was compounded by the apparent talent-ectomy he suffers from.

For whatever reason, this year Logano has been driving as if he has 1 gallon of talent in a 10 gallon bucket... somewhere along the line, he's confused talent with over aggression. As a result, he's smashed up a few cars, pissed off more than a few of his competitors and unintentionally pulled a bonehead move, which ended up seriously injuring Denny Hamlin.

I'm not Roger Penske... but if I was, you can bet, come Monday morning, there'd have been a "Come to Jesus" meeting with young Joey.
Click to expand...
Are you denny hamlin or tony stewart?? Sounds like it.
 
I heard that Denny said there is no chance that he will be able to pass the mandatory Nascar drug test for some time,due to the pain meds he is on. He will have to be off them at least a week before he can be tested . Not like back in the day , right?
 
Johali said:
Are you denny hamlin or tony stewart?? Sounds like it.
Click to expand...

Neither... I'm merely running off at the mouth. Apparently, my sarcasm doesn't come across in the written word.

I have nothing against Logano... Heck, he's doing something that, only in my wildest dreams, I wish I was capable of doing. But, that doesn't mean I can't climb up on my soapbox and pontificate on subjects I have absolutely NO qualifications to comment on... America, ain't it great!

So, in the end, my opinions, such as they are, amount to squat in the grand scheme of things. They're worth exactly what anyone is willing to pay for them, which until now and into the foreseeable future, has been bupkis... nada... zero...
 
ted@economy said:
I heard that Denny said there is no chance that he will be able to pass the mandatory Nascar drug test for some time,due to the pain meds he is on. He will have to be off them at least a week before he can be tested . Not like back in the day , right?
Click to expand...

nascars test levels are based on usage, not the present affects of the drug. nascar could make an exception because they know why he used them.
 
honu said:
Neither... I'm merely running off at the mouth. Apparently, my sarcasm doesn't come across in the written word.

I have nothing against Logano... Heck, he's doing something that, only in my wildest dreams, I wish I was capable of doing. But, that doesn't mean I can't climb up on my soapbox and pontificate on subjects I have absolutely NO qualifications to comment on... America, ain't it great!

So, in the end, my opinions, such as they are, amount to squat in the grand scheme of things. They're worth exactly what anyone is willing to pay for them, which until now and into the foreseeable future, has been bupkis... nada... zero...
Click to expand...

:cheers:
Well said. Now what are your thoughts on taking out the rear windows to reduce aero push? I can't get these fools around here to even consider the idea. ;)
 
FenderBumper said:
nascars test levels are based on usage, not the present affects of the drug. nascar could make an exception because they know why he used them.
Click to expand...
I'm not following you. Drugs in his system is drugs in his system. Regardless if legal or not. And a exception would open the door for others caught 'dirty"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom