Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano have exchanged texts, Roger Penske says

March 27, 2013|By Jim Peltz

Denny Hamlin, who suffered a back injury in a crash at Fontana on Sunday,… (Reed Saxon / Associated…)

NASCAR's Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano have exchanged text messages in the aftermath of their crash last weekend that sidelined Hamlin with an injured back, Logano's team owner Roger Penske said Wednesday.

Penske said he's also sent text messages to Hamlin, a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing who's expected to miss about six weeks after suffering the injury Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

"I've texted back and forth with him and said that we're thinking about him," Penske told Associated Press in Humble, Texas, where Penske and Logano were playing in the pro-am leading up to the PGA Tour's Houston Open. Logano declined to be interviewed.

"Obviously we're hoping for a speedy recovery" for Hamlin, Penske said. "It's never good to have a driver out for a period of time."

Penske said he did not know what Hamlin and Logano had said to each other in their texts. But their communication might signal at least a pause in what has been an escalating feud between the two Sprint Cup Series drivers.

They were racing side by side for the win on the final lap Sunday when they collided, with both cars spinning and hitting the wall. Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota slammed head-first into an inside wall when he suffered his back injury.

Penske said he did not see the collision as any sort of payback. "These guys are racing hard and it's the last lap and it's just the way the cars got together," he told the Associated Press. "The way Denny hit the wall was very unfortunate."

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