RELATED: Hamlin tears ACL playing basketball
Odds are that Denny Hamlin considers his pickup basketball games as healthy maintenance -- his time on the court conditioning for the body, therapeutic for the mind.
Or both.
Unfortunately, while playing hoops Tuesday night, Hamlin tore his right anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and will need offseason surgery. Joe Gibbs Racing says doctors have cleared Hamlin to compete in the remaining 11 races this season -- including Saturday night's regular-season finale at Richmond International Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM).
Hamlin's injury and its timing, however, have brought immediate judgment.
Bring on the bubble wrap.
Should a driver just about to start NASCAR's 10-race playoff run put himself in position to get hurt? Should team owners react with special "no-risk" clauses in driver contracts?
Hamlin's weekday game of basketball is really not much different than Jimmie Johnson cycling 50 miles on race morning or Kasey Kahne running 10 miles the evening after a Sprint Cup Series practice.
It's no different than Danica Patrick challenging her body to contort into a difficult yoga pose, Carl Edwards lifting weights or Josh Wise and Landon Cassill competing in a grueling Ironman 70.3-miler in the Austrian Alps during an off-weekend.
Any of those activities poses a risk.
NASCAR drivers are sometimes in more dangerous situations making sponsorship appearances. They skydive, swim with sharks, run military-grade obstacle courses and go hunting for public relations commitments and promotional obligations.
Brad Keselowski hurt himself celebrating a win in Kentucky Speedway's Victory Lane, for Pete's sake.
An accident is just that.
And it's an ironic situation these race car drivers find themselves in. They make a living doing something extremely risky -- maneuvering cars at 200 mph while racing inches apart from other cars and track walls.
And yet it's their "safe" downtime spent jogging, cycling, shooting hoops or doing yoga -- most motivated by the desire to improve their competitive abilities -- that proves most worrisome.
Contract "reviews" will be called for, as will bold suggestions for more clauses than a Santa convention.
But isn't it all really about common sense and good reason?
A driver's ability to compete affects their livelihood but also the livelihoods of their team owner, crew members and support staff back at the race shop.
It's an important responsibility affecting many people. And the drivers at this elite level get that -- or will be reminded of it by the end of the week.
Heli-skiing without a helmet the Wednesday before a Chase race probably isn't the brightest idea.
Playing a game of pickup basketball or going for a 10-mile run?
That's a different story.
NASCAR is in the midst of a long-overdue trend recognizing the benefits of physical fitness and finally putting to rest the question of whether this sport's athletes are athletes. More drivers are doing more things out of the car to better themselves physically and that's something team owners should encourage, not frown upon.
Implementing strict rules about what a driver can do out of his or her primary race car is its own dangerously slippery slope.
Yes, the recent wake of non-Sprint Cup Series racing injuries that have sidelined the sport's biggest stars -- Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch -- is extremely unfortunate.
But both of those drivers -- and lots of others, too -- possess a certain mentality that the more you race, the better you race.
Busch, who missed the season's first 11 races recovering from injuries suffered in a NASCAR XFINITY Series race, would tell you competing in the XFINITY and Camping World Truck series makes him better in the Cup ranks and that the extra seat time is a business necessity for his team.
Kyle Larson, Kahne and Stewart, who missed four months of competition in 2013 recovering from injuries in a sprint car race, find competing in the occasional sprint car race good medicine for the soul.
And who can begrudge them that, as long as it's working?
This is the second time Hamlin has hurt himself playing basketball and he will be reminded of that often this weekend. But he could have just as easily twisted his ankle walking from his car to the garage.
It all comes down to risk versus reward. And in the case of race car drivers and any other reasonably active adult, one often accompanies the other.