Denny Hamlin was checked over at the infield care center at the recommendation of Sprint Cup officials after crashing his primary racecar during testing Thursday, a sign of the times after the high-profile concussion suffered by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Talladega.
"If Dale Jr.'s incident wouldn't have happened," Hamlin told reporters outside the care center, "I don't think any of y'all would be here."
Still, Hamlin admitted to experiencing dizziness after the incident. "It was hard enough that you want to get checked out," he said.
The crash occurred during Thursday's second day of testing at the resurfaced Kansas track, where his car clipped the Turn 1 wall at approximately 202mph, lost control and then veered back into the Turn 2 wall. After his initial evaluation, he was asked to return in an hour for a follow-up, after which he was cleared to drive for the remainder of the weekend.
"I felt the need just to make sure I was OK," Hamlin added. "I don't want to be endangering myself or anyone else on the track. They seem to think I'm fine, I feel like I'm good, so we're just going to move on with our day."
Hamlin will now switch to a back-up car for Sunday's Cup event. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is currently 15 points behind Chase for he Sprint Cup leader Brad Keselowski.