Denny Hamlin reacts to Christopher Bell three-race win streak after Phoenix photo-finish

Christopher Bell did the improbable on Sunday at Phoenix, winning his third straight race in the NASCAR Cup Series. He’s been absolutely on fire to start the season.

Veteran drivers like Denny Hamlin have seen hot runs like this before — Kevin Harvick last pulled off the three-peat in 2018 — but even they are impressed by Bell’s current run of form. He’s just not making many mistakes at all.

“It’s so hard for me to kind of analyze it from the outside, because I’m not embedded with their team as much as I am with my own team, right?” Hamlin said on the track after the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix, courtesy of FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass. “I mean obviously you see a gain in performance there, but you don’t; it could be a lot of different things. Car’s better, is it circumstances in a speedway race or road course race? Or this one, I guess he probably dominated, right?”

Dominate Christopher Bell did. After weaving his way around the front of the pack in the first stage, Bell took home the stage win in Stage 2, earning a playoff point.

He’d only continue to cruise from there. The field? It simply didn’t have answers.

Hamlin tried to track him down at the close and even got some help from Kyle Larson with a push. It didn’t matter. Bell outraced him for the win, not even bothering to get physical with Hamlin down the stretch.

“I don’t know, circumstance or not three in a row is pretty impressive and whatever they’re doing is just working well,” Hamlin said. The driver of the No. 11 would know, too.

Hamlin broke down the finish and race to the line with Christopher Bell, which was a thrilling one for viewers. It was the second-closest finish in Cup Series history at Phoenix.

“It was the first time we were able to get some clean air all day, and obviously our car was really fast,” Hamlin explained. “I really kind of wanted it to stay green there, because I thought in the long run was really where we were going to be able to excel, especially on these tires.

“But we got a good restart. The 5 really gave me a great push on the front stretch on the restart, and then down the back stretch. So I had kind of position on the 20 but I knew he was going to ship it in there, and if he had to use me he could. Obviously we just kind of ran out of racetrack there, but great finish and great job by the whole Joe Gibbs team to give us some fast cars.”

In the end, Christopher Bell just had the fastest car. And the best driver. That makes for a pretty tough-to-beat combination.