Doubts loom over Denny Hamlin's 2024 NASCAR season as genetic shoulder injury necessitates 3-month recovery

NASCAR's newest bad guy on the block, Denny Hamlin seems to have run into trouble ahead of his 2024 Cup Series campaign. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was one of the frontrunners for the 2023 Cup Series championship fight this year.

However, in true Hamlin fashion, the #11 Toyota Camry TRD was ruled out of a shot at the elusive title due to mechanical failures for Coach Gibbs's racing outfit across multiple teams.

Ahead of the 2024 Cup Series season, Hamlin's fortunes seem to be turning for the worse as a recent shoulder surgery revealed much more damage than initially anticipated.

Denny Hamlin underwent surgery for his right shoulder after the 2023 season for a genetic bone spur unrelated to any injuries sustained in a racecar. However, the final few rounds of the playoffs meant that the damage to his right shoulder was much greater than expected.

Hamlin spoke about his struggles with his shoulder during the final races of the playoffs to racer.com and said:

“Three years ago, I did surgery for a left shoulder bone spur, and this was supposed to be just a bone spur as well, but I knew that I messed it up pretty bad Vegas week, and then since I ran the rest of the season after Vegas, it just continued to do more damage, and now it’s certainly going to be a little longer than what was anticipated.”

He also shared the dejection he felt after finding out that he would be out for around three months.

"I had to get this fixed. I just knew that it was going to be worse. But it’s obviously depressing when you wake up from your anesthesia and know that you’ve got three months of a limp arm that you can’t do anything with."

Denny Hamlin reported damage to a few tendons in his right shoulder, which also saw him unable to lift his arm during the race weekend. Being locked in an intense title fight, Denny Hamlin certainly would not have wanted an injury to curtail his chances.

However, as the drivers rest during the offseason, Hamlin faces an estimated three-month period where he will have to avoid strain on his right shoulder in rehabilitation. The timeline for his therapy and the 2024 Daytona 500 seem to be cutting it rather close, with the latter less than 90 days away.

Denny Hamlin elaborates on his offseason in light of his shoulder injury

With a bone spur complication for Denny Hamlin during the 2023 offseason, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver recently spoke to Kelly Crandall from race.com on how he aims to recover.

"It will change my offseason a little bit, going from trying to work on some tracks that I’ve been so-so at in the simulator or something that probably is not going to happen now. So, it just changes some things and certainly, probably the first laps on track will be whatever we do in February."

The 2024 Daytona 500 goes live on February 18, 2024, at 2:30 p.m. ET.