“There is nobody I hate seeing win more than my teammate”: Denny Hamlin makes a hard-hitting admission after Christopher Bell’s COTA victory

Denny Hamlin has delivered a hard-hitting confession regarding his teammate Christopher Bell's triumph at the Circuit of The Americas. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver didn't sugarcoat his feelings of witnessing the #20 Toyota Camry doing the victory burnouts while he settled for less.

The 95-lap event concluded after an intense battle between Kyle Busch, William Byron, and Christopher Bell, with the JGR driver fending off a late-race charge from Byron's #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to punch his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race win.

For Hamlin, however, COTA was a weekend mired with setbacks. After facing the brunt of opening lap chaos that damaged the #11 Toyota's left front and receiving a penalty for shortcutting Turn 5 later on, the JGR driver turned into Austin Dillon on Lap 78, as dust from his ride showered onto Kyle Larson's Chevy.

As a result, Denny Hamlin finished 21st. But what pinched him more was that his teammate Bell outperformed him despite piloting the same NextGen package, and thus, he expressed his displeasure after the COTA race.

"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 said via Dirty Mo Media (0:04).

Bell's previous victory came at the Atlanta Superspeedway after he edged ahead of Kyle Larson just before the final lap caution was issued.

Denny Hamlin reacts after learning Joe Gibbs's comments on his road course racing

Denny Hamlin has 54 Cup Series race wins, including three Daytona 500s, three Southern 500s, the 2022 Coca-Cola 600, and more. While the Florida native is proficient at superspeedways and speedways, his Achilles' heel remains road course races.

Hamlin has made 55 starts at road courses. However, he could salvage only a solitary win at the 2016 Watkins Glen race while claiming 14 top-5s and 20 top-10s, until the most recent COTA race, which reinforced the narrative of his road course struggles.

As troubles hindered his third Cup Series race weekend, Hamlin's co-host asked Joe Gibbs what inhibited JGR's performance -Hamlin's Camry running with three fenders or the driver's skills. Mr. Gibbs offered a blunt assessment, iterating that both things have a '50-50' contribution to the ordeal.

Hamlin laughed at Gibbs's response, albeit admitting that though he loves road course racing, his skills need improvement.

"It's a shame because I actually enjoy road course driving. I just wish I was better at it," Hamlin admitted via Actions Detrimental (22:50).

Denny Hamlin will return to the field for the fourth Cup Series weekend at the Phoenix Raceway, ranked 17th in the standings.