Denny Hamlin found himself at the center of controversy once again after the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway. It wasn’t just the very unpleasant 0.049-second loss to teammate Christopher Bell that had people talking; it was Hamlin’s reaction afterwards. The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran has never hidden his competitive nature, especially when it comes to his own teammates. But this time, fans weren’t entirely buying his explanation.

“It’s really painful to watch your teammate win.” These were Hamlin’s words on his podcast after Bell bagged the win at COTA last weekend. However, despite coming oh so close to his first win of 2025, he completely flipped on his own statement after the Phoenix heartbreak. 

 “It’s good to see Bell win.” It has to be noted, that Bell wasn’t out in the clear to win the race. The No. 11 JGR car was on the high lane and perhaps had a better shot to win. Although Bell didn’t deploy any dirty tactics, he did run Hamlin off the racetrack. This in turn allowed him to make the run and he also got the bump from Kyle Larson while closing on the start-finish line. 

Unable to snap a 28-race winless streak most of us expected Hamlin to show emotion, and react in the manner that he does on the podcast. But, instead, he chose to be diplomatic and accepted the defeat as if it meant nothing to him. If we are to go by his comments from his podcast a week ago and his post-race comments in Phoenix, there was a huge miss-match. And fans couldn’t help but highlight this flip-flopping stance by the JGR driver on social media.

“Pretty funny to see Denny Hamlin give an interview congratulating C Bell and Joe Gibbs on a win, just days after saying on Actions Detrimental there’s nothing worse than seeing your teammate win lol.” A fan wrote on X. But, for Hamlin, this win by the #20 team was fully deserved and he refurbished the notion of being bumped about his teammate winning over him.

“Let’s just say we had won today, I would’ve said, one that we probably shouldn’t have. I felt very fortunate to have a chance there at the end. It’s tougher when you run like crap and your teammate runs really well. How is the approach so different that and our results are so different, that’s when it starts getting frustrating, not when you get beat by three-hundredths of a second.” He said this on the Actions Detrimental Podcast.

In fact the #20 team also had their strategy on point. They were one of the few teams who had an extra set of the option tires and they put them to use on the final stretch of the race. Although the likes of William Byron and Ryan Preece had their moments in the race, Christopher Bell was indeed the class of the field, leading 105 laps and then fending off Hamlin and Larson in an overtime finish.

JGR bringing home a 1-2 finish is huge for the team. Had it been Hendrick Motorsports teammates, the event would’ve been celebrated by fans and the racing community. Well, if anything, Hamlin does believe that he could’ve won the race on the last 2 laps shoot out had he made the right choices. But what could’ve he done differently, he was on the bumper of the No. 20 car, ran a good line and came oh so close to winning the race. Well, for starters he wouldn’t remain on the outside line.

Here’s how Denny Hamlin would’ve handled the overtime finish in Phoenix

Those of you who had watched Saturday’s Xfinity race knew very well how tough it was going to be for Hamlin to win banking on the high line. Alex Bowman made a mistake in leaving a huge gap for Aric Almirola on the last lap dash and the JGR driver made the most of it. Bowman was hoping that Almirola would race him to the start-finish line, but instead, he washed the No. 17 car into the wall stealing the win.

Unfortunately, the #11 Toyota Camry was in a similar spot and thus was at a disadvantage. And this is exactly what Hamlin pointed out when asked how differently would he handle the last two laps if given a second opportunity. “There was an opportunity on the white flag lap when he slid me in the middle of the 1 & 2. He cleared me for a brief moment. I could’ve said, I don’t want the outside, I’m just gonna be on your bumper here entering turn 3. 

“If I had to do it all over again, I knew how he was gonna react. Almost like what Carl did at Richmond with Kyle Busch. Had I do it all over again and I could see the grand picture know that I had plenty of space behind me with the #5, I would’ve said – Okay I’m not gonna put myself on the outside. I’m not gonna win on the outside, he’s just gonna shove me up.”

Well, Hamlin will have plenty of opportunities to get even with his teammate on some of his favorite tracks. Who knows, we might see a similar three-way battle this weekend in Las Vegas itself.