Denny Hamlin Robs Nashville Victory From Bell In Thrilling Battle

It looked like Christopher Bell had finally exorcised the bad-luck demons that had plagued him and kept him out of victory lane through the opening 13 races of the NASCAR Cup Series season. Then, Denny Hamlin, Bell's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, was able to author the latest crushing defeat for the driver of the No. 20 Toyota in Sunday night's Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

With 13 laps left in the race, Bell had easily worked his way past Zane Smith, who was on a severe tire disadvantage, for the race lead, and it looked like he was heading toward certain victory. However, on a night when right front brake rotors continually burst, Chris Buescher's No. 17 RFK Racing Ford suffered the final rotor explosion of the evening on Lap 288.

This sent the race into caution, which re-racked the field, and gave Bell's teammates, Chase Briscoe and Hamlin, another shot. And in a thrilling three-way battle, which saw the three drivers go three-wide on track at one point, it was Hamlin, who was able to snag the lead from Bell on the final lap of the race to secure his 62nd career NASCAR Cup Series win.

For Hamlin, who started on the pole, it was an incredible comeback rally. On the initial start of the race, Hamlin was black-flagged for accelerating before reaching the restart zone. He who was once first was now last. But Hamlin didn't panic on the radio. He was focused on making up the lost ground.

"I definitely jumped the start, no doubt about that. Yeah, just looking back on it, just didn't wait quite long enough," Hamlin said after the race.

Incredibly, he, along with the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew and crew chief Chris Gayle, was able to hang in there and work back into a position to close it out. And that's what Hamlin did, again.

"Man, what an unbelievable day -- starting first, going to last, and back to first," Hamlin said in his post-race interview on Prime Video.

Hamlin admits that he wasn't sure he'd be able to pull off the win going into the final restart, until he saw Bell and Briscoe fighting side-by-side in Turn 1.

"Well, I think the 20 and the 19 were battling so hard on the first corner, just let me get to the inside of the 20 on the first corner there on the restart," Hamlin explained. "From there, side by side with the 20. He drove in so deep on that last lap into [Turn] 1, but it allowed me to barely clear off of [Turn] 2."

The rest, as they say, was history.

While Bell, who has 13 NASCAR Cup Series wins in his career, continues to come up empty-handed as far as wins go this season, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota now has back-to-back runner-up finishes, including last week's Coca-Cola 600. Bell didn't make excuses after his latest missed opportunity.

"I didn't need anything. My car was amazing. Had the right strategy, had the right everything. And I just did not win the race. I didn't do a good job driving, and I have noone to blame but myself," Bell anguished.

While the sting of the loss is fresh for Bell, it feels like a certainty that a win is coming for the driver, and soon.

Briscoe, who is in desperation mode to make up for a rash of finishes outside the top-30 earlier this year, was happy to gain a top-five finish, but upset he was unable to best his teammates in the closing laps for the win.

"Hate that we weren't on the better end of it," Briscoe said of the battle in the closing laps. "We had a really, really good Bass Pro Shops Tracker Toyota, just felt like it was certainly capable of winning, ended up third. Great day for JGR, went one, two, three. Wish we were the ones in first."

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who took four fresh tires on the final caution of the race, was able to rocket through the field to snatch a fourth-place result. Stenhouse was driving a Kyle Busch tribute paint scheme, with primary sponsor NOS Energy.

Shane van Gisbergen, who is regarded as a supremely talented road racer, is starting to show that he has the chops to succeed on ovals now, too, as he secured a solid fifth-place result on Sunday night.

On the final lap of the race, Tyler Reddick was sent head-first into the outside wall in a hard crash, which sent sparks showering out from under his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota. However, as the car skidded across the finish line, Reddick, the series point leader, was credited with a sixth-place run.

Reddick was evaluated and released from the infield care center with no issues following the scary-looking crash.

Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Zane Smith, and Carson Hocevar rounded out the top-10 finishers on Sunday night.

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