Denny Hamlin Tips His Hat to Christopher Bell for His Phoenix Masterclass

It was redemption day for Christopher Bell at Phoenix Raceway as he took the checkered flag on Sunday. As impressive as his drive was, not everyone was focused on that. Going into the race, the big debate was around the new aero package NASCAR had developed to improve short-track racing, which overshadowed Bell’s stupendous run. But as Bell’s achievement seemed to be swept under the rug, teammate Denny Hamlin came to his rescue.

Hamlin had one of the biggest moments of the race when he spun towards the end, reshuffling the pack after bringing out the caution. While his teammate won the race, the driver of the #11 managed a decent P11 finish. But he was quite impressed with how the #20 team handled the cautions and fought to the finish line.

Christopher Bell’s win was overshadowed by under-delivering NASCAR upgrade

On a recent episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast, he spoke about the race, Bell’s victory, and the #20 team’s incredible performance. The 43-year-old admitted that his younger teammate was the better driver on that day. These words will go a long way for the 29-year-old driver, who is slowly transitioning into a better driver at Joe Gibbs Racing.

“He was better than I was. He was able to go through the pack. I think the ability for him to run, kind of, in a different line than others really benefited him for sure but it seemed like what happened was we had a restart where he really got a chunk of positions and then he got to those older tire cars quicker than everyone else did and he just disposed of them really quickly. You gotta tip your cap to him and his team for staying in the game. They got to the front at the end of stage 2, had a not-so-good pitstop, and then…it was going to be interesting to see how that race played out if I didn’t cause a wreck,” the driver of the #11 said.

It was not just Bell who ran well. It seemed like the new aero package massively favored Toyota cars, too, as they were by far the most dominant. Before Sunday, Toyota had only led 15 laps in 4 years at Phoenix Raceway. After the race, it was revealed that Toyota cars lead 298 of the 312 laps in just a single race, with Hamlin leading the most with 68 and Bell with 50.

However, the driver of the #11 car still believes that a lot needs to be done to improve short-track racing in the Next-Gen car. It is the heaviest car NASCAR has ever come out with and the drag is far just too high for good short-track racing. The answer to that? Horsepower.

Read More – Redemption Seeking Christopher Bell Highlights the Importance of Phoenix Victory After Last Season’s Championship Heartbreak

Denny Hamlin has a low-cost solution to the short-track problems

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Currently, the Cup Series cars run at 670 HP and the reason why NASCAR has stayed away from increasing it is the cost. However, according to Denny Hamlin, an increase to 750 HP can reportedly be managed without any additional costs or issues with the car’s durability. The 43-year-old has been a team owner for a few years now and has a grip on the financial side of things very well and believes that higher horsepower would certainly solve a lot of problems.

“You just call up Doug Yates (who oversees Ford’s engine program) and (Toyota Racing Development) and say we are going to go back to our old 750 plate – it can be before next weekend, and they said it wouldn’t change any of our durability we have. It can be done with one phone call with no additional money,” he said as per NBC.

“The more you can get us out of the gas, which means if we have more horsepower, we have to let off sooner, that gives us the opportunity to overtake for the cars behind. Fifty horsepower, while it may not be a game changer, any horsepower gain will be an advantage for passing,” he added.

The short track package will be put to its true test at Bristol when NASCAR runs a dirt race this coming weekend. It will be interesting to see how the package runs on a true short track with dirt all over, which will allow cars to slide around a lot more than usual.

Read More – Horsepower Advocate Dale Jr Makes Shocking Heel Turn On Denny Hamlin’s Short-Track Package Demands