Denny Hamlin struggles to decode Christopher Bell's team's winning strategy after third consecutive victory at Phoenix

NASCAR: Cup Qualifying - Source: Imagn — NASCAR: Denny Hamlin at Cup Qualifying - Source: Imagn

Joe Gibbs Racing had a dominant result on Sunday in the Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway, with Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin finishing 1-2 in the race. While this was Hamlin's first top-5 result of the 2025 season, Bell now has three consecutive race wins. Teammate Hamlin admitted that it's hard to figure out what the #20 team was doing that's working so well for them.

Bell has started the season strongly with three back-to-back wins at Atlanta, COTA, and Phoenix. His latest victory was the most convincing of them all as he held back Hamlin in the dying stage of the race in an equally strong Toyota.

Hamlin and Bell started the race in P10 and P11, respectively, and remained in the top 10 throughout the race. Bell won the second stage and continued to lead the final with his teammate in pursuit. The #20 driver was able to maintain a constant gap of about half a second over Hamlin as they approached the final few laps.

However, a late caution caused by Ty Gibbs hitting the walls on lap 305 erased Bell's advantage. After the restart, Hamlin was able to take the lead going into the white flag lap and was side by side with Bell entering the final turn. Bell ran the #11 car up the racetrack at the exit, leaving Hamlin with no room to maintain his speed through the finish line. He ultimately took the victory by just 0.049 seconds.

After the race, Bob Pockrass from FOX Sports asked Hamlin if it was just circumstances favoring Christopher Bell or if the #20 driver was doing something in the last few weeks that he hadn't done before.

"It's so hard for me to kind of analyze it from the outside because you know, I am not embedded at their team as much as I am with my own team, right? I mean, obviously you see a gain in performance there, but you know, it could be a lot of different things," Denny Hamlin remarked.

"Is our car better? Is it circumstances in a speedway race or a road course race, or this one? I guess he probably dominated, right? So I don't know, circumstance or not, three in a row is pretty impressive and whatever they're doing is working well," he added.

Expand Tweet

With the second-place finish, Hamlin has moved up 10 spots in the drivers' standings and now sits in P7 with 110 points to his name.

Denny Hamlin hates seeing his teammates win

Racing drivers are some of the most competitive people on the planet. And while no driver likes to lose to anyone, it is especially difficult for them to get beaten by their teammates, and that is also very true in the case of Denny Hamlin.

In a clip shared on X by Dirty Mo Media, Hamlin talked about why he hated it the most when he lost to his teammates. The JGR driver explained that teammates are their biggest rivals because they have the same car. Losing to a teammate hurts more because it removes any excuses about the difference in car performance.

"There is nobody that I hate seeing win more than my teammate because I know he's driving the same thing that I'm driving. I love Christopher, he's a great dude. I don't want him to beat me, you always measure yourself off your teammates...I'm congratulating Heather (JGR co-owner) and Joe, it's a big win for the team. But as a driver, as a competitor, we do not like seeing our teammates win," Hamlin shared.