Joe Gibbs Racing has revealed their veteran star driver Denny Hamlin has undergone successful shoulder surgery.
The team announced the news via press release on Wednesday. Hamlin is projected to fully recover for the 2024 season.
“Joe Gibbs Racing announces that Denny Hamlin underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder earlier today,” the press release read. “The surgery was completed by Dr. Patrick Connor at Charlotte Surgery Center. Hamlin is expected to fully recover in time for the start of the 2024 season.”
Denny Hamlin was phenomenal in 2023, but just missed out on making it to the Championship 4. He’ll surely be more determined than ever to capture his first NASCAR Cup Series title in 2024.
Denny Hamlin has to ‘figure out’ how to win a NASCAR title
When asked what he has to do to get better following the 2023 season, Denny Hamlin didn’t give specifics. However, he did say there were a few things that could be done. He pointed to Christopher Bell’s limited run in the championship. Bell wasn’t nearly as good in qualifying as he had been before. And his long run speed didn’t muster up to Blaney’s.
So, what is the plan here? Simulator time? Going to the car and figuring out what setup is going to work best? Hamlin isn’t 100% sure, but he knows what he saw this year. Two drivers that for one reason or another got really good at the end of the season.
“You gotta figure it out, there’s different ways you can work on it. I look in general, Truex was somewhat up front, we [JGR] just weren’t that strong. Generally speaking. Even C Bell didn’t qualify his normal, in the race he was okay. I was watching plenty of SMT and the 12 was still stronger, much stronger than he was in the long run so it was going to be difficult.
“It’s interesting, we knew this [is] the format, we’ve always known this [is the] format, but this is the first year that, in my opinion, the Ben Rhodes [team] and the Ryan Blaney’s [team] were, they just got good in the last couple of races and won the championship. And when I say good, they got great. They didn’t get good, they got great. And won. So, can you just hang around and get past some of these summer races and whatever and just win it in the end? It appears that [methodology] works.”
Denny Hamlin can say it’s a simple solution. Just run well at Phoenix. However, you have to get there first. From there, you can worry about the Phoenix setup. Joe Gibbs Racing had some bad luck in the playoffs, but maybe it was more than just luck that factored into the postseason shortcomings.