In a candid self-reflection, Denny Hamlin, a NASCAR driver with Joe Gibbs Racing, expressed his frustrations and regret over his recent loss at Phoenix Raceway. Hamlin, who ended up on the losing side of a razor-edge final lap duel with teammate Christopher Bell, blamed no one but himself for the debacle.
Speaking on his ‘Actions Detrimental’ podcast following the Shriners Children’s 500, Hamlin confessed, “I’m more mad at myself than anything, to not do the things I needed to do to finish it.” It was a stark admission from the driver who, upon reviewing the race, realized he had missed several opportunities to secure victory.
One of Hamlin’s key errors, as he explained, was giving Bell the bottom lane during the race. In retrospect, Hamlin wishes he had stayed behind Bell and driven him up the racetrack in the final turns. This strategic misstep resulted in Hamlin coming up short against Bell in a side-by-side battle off Turn 4.
The two teammates ran a clean race, with no contact between them, but Hamlin found himself running out of room on the high side and ended up in the dirty part of the racetrack. Meanwhile, Bell remained committed to the bottom lane. This sequence was the result of a restart with two laps to go that had Bell restarting on the bottom and Hamlin on the outside. Despite a brief advantage from a push by Kyle Larson, Hamlin couldn’t shake off Bell, who stayed on his left rear as they took the white flag.
The battle continued on the final lap, with Bell almost dispatching Hamlin for good in Turns 1 and 2. However, Hamlin managed to get back to Bell’s outside down the backstretch. The crucial difference came in Turns 3 and 4, where Bell ran hard into the corners, pushing both drivers further up the track.
Reflecting on the race, Hamlin pinpointed a critical opportunity he missed on the white flag lap, admitting, “When he slid me and he cleared me for a brief moment I could have just said, ‘OK, I don’t want the outside. I’m just going to be on your bumper entering Turn 3.’”
Regrettably, this was not Hamlin’s first encounter with such a predicament. He recalled making the same mistake against Kevin Harvick at New Hampshire in 2019, leading to another second-place finish. “I wish I would do things differently in the moment, but it’s so hard when you’re in the moment,” Hamlin lamented.
There was no foul play or dirty tactics involved in the race between Bell and Hamlin. Nonetheless, the self-blame and regret for Hamlin stem from his belief that the loss could have been avoided and that he fell for a trap he had experienced before. In his own words, “I didn’t learn my lesson the first time.” This candid admission provides a clear demonstration of the high-stakes decision-making and split-second strategies that define the sport of NASCAR racing.
