Denny Hamlin has voiced his disappointment with Christopher Bell for opting to follow Kyle Busch during the Daytona race last Saturday. Bell trailed the #8 car until the final lap of overtime, ultimately finishing in third place. Hamlin indicated that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver might have clinched victory in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 had he taken a different route.
The event at Daytona International Speedway marked Harrison Burton’s first Cup Series win, as he fended off Kyle Busch right to the finish line. Richard Childress Racing, in dire need of a victory to secure a playoff position, chased after the Wood Brothers Racing driver but couldn’t catch him.
Hamlin pointed out that Bell had a golden opportunity to pass both Burton and Busch when they moved to the high line. However, the JGR driver opted not to seize that moment, resulting in his third-place finish.
In the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin remarked:
“I’m honestly surprised that Christopher Bell didn’t move up in front of the top line. There was a moment when I saw him stuck behind Kyle, but the two of them cleared the high line,” said the driver, whose net worth is estimated at $65 million according to Celebrity Net Worth.
“My take is that whenever you can be the lead car, you should take that chance. I felt that when he decided to stay behind the 8 instead of moving up in front of Harrison, that was a significant moment… Definitely a defining moment,” he concluded.
Both Bell and Hamlin have secured their spots in this season’s playoffs, alongside Harrison Burton, who clinched a victory at Daytona. This win was particularly significant as it marked the 100th Cup Series triumph for Wood Brothers Racing. On the other hand, Busch has once again missed out on a win, leaving him without a guaranteed playoff position.
Denny Hamlin recently opened up about the hefty penalty he faced from NASCAR, which resulted in a 75-point deduction in the regular season standings and a further 10-point deduction for the playoffs. The penalty was handed down to Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing after an engine teardown revealed an issue following Hamlin’s Cup Series victory at Bristol earlier this year. In a recent episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin pointed to Toyota Racing Development as the source of the mistake.
“You might think, ‘It’s just a 10-point penalty,’ but it’s much more than that. Look where I am now. I’m sitting in 8th place in points. I was in the running for the regular season championship, which would have earned me 15 points, but now I’m likely to get just 3. It’s a massive shift for us,” the 43-year-old reflected.
Before the penalty, Hamlin was in a tight race for the regular season championship with Tyler Reddick. Currently, he finds himself in eighth place with 722 points after 25 races, trailing Reddick by 111 points in the regular season standings and sitting sixth in the playoff rankings.
