On lap 99 of the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Denny Hamlin's right-front tire blew sending him hard into the wall.

Hamlin was taken to the Birmingham, AL hospital for further evaluation.

"It was quite a shot," J.D. Gibbs, Joe Gibbs Racing President, said. "It kind of hurt his ankle a little bit, but that should be OK. He has a little headache, so we’re just going to watch him and probably take him into Birmingham [hospital] just to keep an eye on him. But he’s alert and doing well."

Hoping to inch closer to the top drivers in the point standings, Hamlin was going to use Talladega to potentially energize a comeback. By the time his crash happend he was doing just that.

“He feels pretty good, but we’re just going to take precautions and make sure he’s OK," Gibbs stated. "I talked to his family and let them know what is going on. It was a scary deal. ... He has a little bit of a headache that’s kind of going away. His ankle got bruised up pretty good, but he should be good. … Any time you get a headache coming out of a wreck like that, they’re going to want to take you [to the hospital]."

*UPDATE - HardcoreRaceFans.com has learned that Hamlin was released from the University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital this morning and is returning home to North Carolina. Any further information of Hamlin's condition was not released.