NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin knows all too well that NASCAR still remains a sport where severe injury or worse is a possibility every time a driver takes the track. It was no more evident for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver than on the final lap of March's NASCAR race at Auto Club Speedway.

Battling for the lead on the final lap with new rival Joey Logano, Hamlin lost control and piled into a solid concrete wall. The crunching hit left Hamlin's car destroyed. He's missed several races with a compression fracture suffered during the going-for-broke crash.

Hamlin, just as Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Michael Annett and others have learned in recent seasons, saw firsthand that auto racing still isn't a safe endeavor even in the era of NASCAR's expansive safety program. And when Hamlin returns, he'll be facing tracks still full of danger at every turn of every track.

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