HAMLIN OUT AT AUTO CLUB

Joe Gibbs Racing driver will be replaced by Sam Hornish Jr.

FONTANA, Calif. -- Only minutes before the start of Sunday's Auto Club 400, Joe Gibbs Racing officials announced that driver Denny Hamlin was not medically cleared to race because of a sinus infection that is causing vision problems.
Sam Hornish Jr. will drive the No. 11 FedEx Toyota in his place -- the second time Hornish has been called into emergency substitute duties. He replaced A.J. Allmendinger at Daytona in July of 2012, arriving minutes before the start of that race.
"The doctors here say Denny has to go to hospital right now and get it checked out,'' said Joe Gibbs Racing President JD Gibbs, who only found out about the situation 10 minutes before driver introductions began. "They [NASCAR] just said, 'hey we can't approve it, until he gets checked out by ophthalmologist.' "