Darlington raises questions on future worth exploring

Sometimes results of a race bring as many questions with it as answers.

So it was with Saturday's Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, which was won by Denny Hamlin. With 11 races down and 15 to go before the Chase to the Sprint Cup championship cutoff, the top 12 drivers who will battle it out for the title over the final 10 races are far from settled.

Here were three questions that came to mind after digesting the race weekend that was Darlington:

Who needs two knees?

• All Access: Denny Hamlin

Apparently not race winner Denny Hamlin, who continues to belittle naysayers who thought his season might be lost when he decided to undergo surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee roughly six weeks ago. Well, he has two knees of course; just not two completely healthy ones.

Since finishing 30th in his first post-surgery race at Phoenix on April 10, Hamlin has won at Texas, finished fourth at Talladega, 11th at Richmond and won again at Darlington. He has won three of the last six races overall, having won the last race before his surgery at Martinsville on March 29. He has surged to sixth in the standings and both he and crew chief Mike Ford keep insisting that the best is yet to come.

Considering the fact that his knee is only likely to get stronger as the season and his rehabilitation work in between races continues, why wouldn't that be true? More importantly, the No. 11 Toyota Hamlin drives for Joe Gibbs Racing has been consistently fast -- and Ford reiterated after last Saturday's victory that the team truly is focusing more on gearing up for the Chase than actually trying to win races right now. That's scary.

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• Surging Hamlin sends his most emphatic message
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