Mark Martin To Replace Denny Hamlin This Weekend Only at Martinsville

I knew it was too good to be true.  I've been a Mark Martin fan for a long time.  When I heard the news that he was going to drive Denny Hamlin's car while he recovered, I was very excited.  I'm a fan of Joe Gibbs Racing (being a Redskin fan and all.)  Mark Martin will replace Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 during Hamlin’s recovery from a back injury.  However, it'll only be for this weekend's race at Martinsville.

Last week, Michael Waltrip Racing sent out a release, stating that Martin would run for Joe Gibbs Racing only at Martinsville and would return to MWR's No. 55 -- as scheduled -- at the next three races after this week’s race. Hamlin suffered a compression fracture in a crash on the final lap of the  Auto Club 400  in Fontana, Calif, 2 weekends ago. He could be out 6 weeks-5 races.

Rodney Childers, Martin's crew chief at MWR, tweeted: "This will be like me loaning my girlfriend to my best friend for 4 weeks to see if I like this other girl moving fwd.. It will be very hard. But overall, this will show a lot of people that we work a lot closer with JGR than most people think we do."

Brian Vickers will now drive the #11 car for the next 4 races after this weekend. Denny could return the weekend of May 10th at Darlington Raceway.