“Tougher when we run like c**p”: Denny Hamlin comes clean on Christopher Bell’s third win in a row

Denny Hamlin, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver and the co-owner of 23XI Racing, talked about his teammate Christopher Bell’s third consecutive win in a row in the Cup Series. This win came after his previous wins at Atlanta and COTA.

The final two laps of the Shriners Children’s 500 at the Phoenix Raceway were set up by a caution involving Ty Gibbs, which prompted a restart. Joe Gibbs Racing drivers, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, found themselves side by side, with Hamlin initially taking the lead. But Bell made a decisive move on the inside during the final lap, forcing Hamlin wide, and saw a jaw-dropping finish where Bell edged out Hamlin by 0.049 seconds.

On his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin shared his insights on the closing moments of the exciting race and called himself fortunate enough to be in the place because of the restart.

"No, not really, because let's just say we had won today. I would have said, hmm, one one we probably shouldn't have, right? I felt very fortunate to have a chance there at the end. I don't know, it's tougher when we run like c**p and your teammate runs really well," Denny Hamlin said.

He expressed that the frustration came into the picture because of him being beaten by a very narrow margin. The 44-year-old said that the win was in his grasp and he couldn’t “capitalise” on it.

"How is the approach so different that our results are so different? That's where it becomes frustrating, not when you, you know, get beat by three hundredths of a second...I mean, that's where my frustration really stems from, right? It's just like, you got to capitalize on each one that you, that you have that opportunity, and so when we came out second with 40 to go, I thought we had a legit shot," he added.

As of now, Denny Hamlin, with his impressive second-place finish, stands seventh in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 110 points.

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Denny Hamlin says Christopher Bell's team's winning strategy "is working well" after third consecutive victory at Phoenix

Following Joe Gibbs Racing's dominant 1-2 finish at Phoenix Raceway, Denny Hamlin openly admitted his struggle to understand Christopher Bell's team's winning strategy. While Hamlin secured his first top-5 result of the 2025 season, Bell clinched his third consecutive victory, leaving Hamlin pondering what the No. 20 team is doing differently to achieve such consistent success. He told veteran NASCAR journalist Bob Pockrass:

"It's so hard for me to kind of analyze it from the outside because you know, I am not embedded with 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."

"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.

He questioned whether Christopher Bell's recent surge in performance stemmed from car improvements, circumstantial advantages in specific race types, or other factors. But he eventually admitted that whatever the team was doing, it was benefitting them at the end of the day.