As we head to Talladega for the tenth race week of the NASCAR season, William Byron and Christopher Bell are two winners still unproven on ‘Dega’s deadly drafting track. But with three wins, among those a superspeedway triumph already claimed at the 2024 Daytona season opener, Rick Hendrick’s #24 driver certainly looks like a strong contender this season. 

Christopher Bell, on the other hand, has started his season incredibly. With one race win, two podium finishes, and two top-10s so far this season, even his teammate Denny Hamlin believes if there’s anyone who can match the underdog capabilities of Byron, it is, in fact, his #20 teammate. However, Bell must first escape the shadows inside the JGR stable before laying any respectable challenge to HMS’ early season dominance.

Denny Hamlin hints at underrated Christopher Bell countering William Byron’s dominance

From starting the Texas race, right outside the top 10 to suffering a last-lap crash that dashed all hopes for JGR representation at the podium, Denny Hamlin certainly had an eventful Sunday. His teammate Christopher Bell, as well as, all the other Joe GIbbs’ cars, suffered in some way or another. But Bell’s spinout in Stage 2 caught the eyes of many. Hamlin would likely have had this on his mind when he discussed a revealing anecdote about the #20 driver.

In the latest release of Actions Detrimental, Denny explained that the JGR stable has been recently involved in some sort of a “sit down” with Kevin Harvick. He brought to light a question directed towards one specific Christopher Bell, which according to Hamlin, sounded something like: “Why do you feel like you’re overlooked at times?”

Bell has often been the “overlooked” team member, ever since joining JGR in 2021. Hamlin explained his teammate’s honest answer. “Because I don’t lead laps like my teammates. Well I do win races, and I do run up front but (all) people talk about is, who’s controlling the race? Who’s showing that they’re the best…”

In the words of Denny, the #20 driver would even declare that he “thinks it’s somewhat warranted,” considering the 7-time race-winner mostly stays invisible during his triumphs, only coming alive in the final stages to round off the occasional Cup Series victory. Hamlin concurred with this sentiment and said, “So you can’t argue that Christopher Bell gets results. Like, he gets results.” 

But that was not where the #11 stopped. Rather his next statement to co-host Jared Allen came as a shocker and will most likely go on to ruffle some feathers in the future: “I think even William Byron. Does it feel a little bit of the same way where he wins races but he doesn’t dominate them?”

A silent JGR-HMS tug-of-war

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Rightfully so, William Byron’s last two outings have resulted in two separate podium sweeps for Rick Hendrick’s race team. His most recent P3 at Texas comes after a controversial overtime restart, which has many still claiming Byron intentionally wrecked Stage 2 winner and podium contender Ross Chastain on Lap 276.  Byron started this race at P6 and maintained his track position silently through both stages. Eventually securing his fourth podium finish this season while teammate Chase Elliott broke his 42-race winless streak decisively.

At Martinsville, Byron, (P3) Elliott, and (P2) Kyle Larson swept the podium on 40 years of Hendrick Motorsports returning to the same track they earned their first victory on, in 1984. In this race, Byron started from the middle of the pack in P18 and ended with his second-ever victory on Martinsville half-mile.

However, the #24-#20 tug-of-war was most apparent at COTA’s road race last month when Byron edged out Bell for a pole-to-P1 victory. The #20 Toyota finished behind the #24 Chevy, as Bell failed to add to his tally of one race-win he currently holds after an inaugural Phoenix victory this season. The similarities may have some fuel behind them, but to stoke the fire, Bell must win at least two more races as of now.