On November 22nd, Joe Gibbs Racing revealed that Hamlin had undergone successful arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder.
This is not a new issue for Hamlin, who suffered a bone spur in his left shoulder a few years back and expected this to be a similar issue. However, the recovery is going a bit slower than expected. During media availability at the end-of-the-year NASCAR Awards banquet in Nashville on Thursday, he revealed new details regarding the situation.
"It was planned," he said of the surgery, his right arm in a sling. "It wasn't planned to be how bad it ended up being. It's something I planned to have fixed in the offseason."
He continued: "I knew that I messed it up pretty bad [Las] Vegas week. And then since I ran the rest of the season after Vegas, it just continued to do more damage and now it's going to be a little bit longer than what was anticipated."
Hamlin indicated that the issue is genetic and not the result of a racing-related injury. He battled through the pain. and ultimately finished the 2023 season fifth in the championship standings, winning three races including a milestone 50th at Pocono Raceway.
The 43-year-old then cast some doubt over his participation in the pre-season Clash at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum on February 4th.
"I'm a long, long way from where I need to be," Hamlin said to the assembled media. "I thought I was going to have a three, four-week recovery like I did before, but I came out knowing I had a ton of damage that needed to be fixed."
Hamlin indicated that this may adversely affect his preparations for the 2024 season, saying: "I think it will will change my offseason a little bit, going from trying to work on some tracks that I have been so-so at in the simulator. That probably is just not going to happen now. It changes some things and certainly, probably, the first laps on track will be whatever we do in February.
"I don't know — do we need to analyze the Clash? Maybe when the time comes because from what I’ve heard, they don’t want me loading it for three months. Obviously, that timeline does not line up."
The Clash, which features a 150-lap main event around a temporary quarter-mile track, awards no points towards the championship and takes place two weeks before the 66th running of the Daytona 500.
