“I thought I was in the losing position”: JGR star Christopher Bell recalls his last-lap battle with teammate Denny Hamlin

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell recalled his last lap battle for the win at Phoenix Raceway with his JGR teammate, Denny Hamlin. He gave a play-by-play insight into the final restart and his winning moment.

Christopher Bell, the #20 driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, led a race-high 105 laps and won the stage 2 at the Phoenix Raceway on 9th March, 2025. Starting in 11th, he had quickly progressed through to the top spot on the track, and ended up notching up his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series win of the season.

He narrowly beat out his JGR teammate Denny Hamlin by 0.049 in a side-by-side finish. This was the first time a driver has had three consecutive wins in the Next-Gen car. His wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Circuit of The Americas preceded it.

The 30-year-old gave a play-by-play commentary on his recent win at the Phoenix Raceway where he described his side of the photo finish involving his teammate. Christopher Bell believed he was in a losing position and he decided to do the only move he had left to do which was driving "in really deep":

"I had a really good corner and I tried to stall him before I dropped to the dog leg. I actually think that worked really well. I got a nice side draft on him going into one. I'm like all right I'm shipping it in here for all I'm worth and I know I needed to get clear. Oh, I got clear, but he was able to get right back outside me. I'm surprised he had that much grip out there in the dirty part of the racetrack, but once again I thought I was in the losing position, and I'm like my only move is to drive in really deep."

The 30-year-old finally described the winning push that Kyle Larson gave C.Bell:

"I washed up tried to stay off of him and then Kyle, Kyle picked me up gave me a shove right to the line. Three feet."

This victory propelled Bell to second place in the championship standings behind William Byron who won the Daytona 500. The 30-year-old's performance has been remarkable, with three wins in the first four races of the season, last achieved by Kevin Harvick in 2018.

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Christopher Bell got real on thrilling Phoenix win over Denny Hamlin

Christopher Bell described the final moments of the race as chaotic, highlighting his uncertainty about winning as Hamlin challenged him on the outside in the final lap. Despite leading for a significant portion of the race (102 laps), Bell felt the win slipping away multiple times, especially on the restart with two laps remaining.

“I thought I had lost the race coming to the white flag on the bottom with Denny on my outside. And then, uh, I once again felt like I had lost the race coming to the checkered flag down the back straightaway whenever Denny was on the outside. And I don't know how I won, but I got to the. I do know how I won the #5 car [Kyle Larson] gave me a great shove coming off the turn forward to push me to the line, and that was the difference maker.”

The win secured his playoff spot and placed Christopher Bell second in the Cup Series points standings with 152 points.