BRISTOL, Tenn.— Denny Hamlin will not finish the Food City 500 after deciding not to return to his car following a rain delay at Bristol Motor Speedway.
"I just pulled something in my neck and upper back on lap 12, the pain was bothering me quite a bit," Hamlin said after the race resumed following a lengthy rain delay. "We have been working on it the past few hours. No way I could go out there and compete for a win. It is just something that will go away, but I just pulled it."
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Hamlin was replaced by Erik Jones, who is making his Sprint Cup debut in the No. 11 Toyota. Hamlin missed four races in 2013 with a broken vertebra in his lower back. He will still receive the points for this race since he started.
Jones, 18, earned his first Xfinity Series victory earlier this month at Texas Motor Speedway. Jones outdueled Sprint Cup stars Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski for the victory.
Hamlin isn't the only NASCAR competitor who left the race during the rain delay. FOX Sports reported that Kurt Busch's crew chief, Tony Gibson, is sitting out because of kidney stones.