Denny Hamlin struggled for most of the Enjoy Illinois 300, feeling like he didn’t have the car or pace needed at World Wide Technology Raceway. Yet, the championship leader still managed to finish ninth in the chaotic race and maintain his lead in the standings. It was his teammate Christopher Bell who missed a big opportunity to close the gap to Hamlin.
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Bell had won the week before at Darlington, earning 73 points. In Illinois, however, he finished 19th and earned just 27 points, six fewer than Hamlin. Veteran journalists Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi criticized Bell’s performance on the latest episode of The Teardown podcast.
“One of the people you would say had a bad day and lost a lot of points was Christopher Bell,” said Gluck. “He finished 19th. He didn’t get any points in stage two. He did get nine points in stage one. He went from -12 entering this race to -18; he only lost six points.”
It was a blunt assessment of the situation Bell finds himself in heading into the third round of the Chase, which takes place next weekend in Bristol. But if this seemed like a harsh reality check, Bianchi took it a step further.
“I don’t know how you can’t feel like this is a missed opportunity,” Bianchi continued on the podcast. “It’s great that you’re only 18 points back and you certainly control your destiny, and you’re going to dictate things from here on out. But at one point, the way this was unfolding, he was actually going to move into the championship lead.”
Darlington seemed like a moment of redemption for Bell. His 2026 season hasn’t been horrible, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver finished runner-up seven times during the regular season. Getting to Victory Lane in the Chase opener felt like the perfect time to get his first win and make a push for the championship. But after just two races, he has already faltered.
Bianchi believes it wasn’t just a missed opportunity for Bell, but also for Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who suffered a DNF after his brake rotor failed, sending his No. 12 Ford into the wall before it came to a halt.
Bianchi further stated that the championship could be decided by single digits, making the poor finishes for Bell and Blaney in Illinois even more costly. Hamlin didn’t have a great weekend either, but still came out of it relatively unscathed.
“This was an opportunity to capitalize, and you have to capitalize when your opposition has bad days. Because the 11 isn’t going to have many of these moments, they’ve had two,” Bianchi said on the podcast.
Hamlin finished 18th at Darlington before the Enjoy Illinois 300, but Hamlin still sits nine points ahead of Kyle Larson in the Chase standings. Bianchi feels drivers like Bell, who have the speed to dethrone Hamlin, are “letting him off the hook.”
Bell is already kicking himself. After finishing 19th, the No. 20 JGR driver told the media he felt he had a chance to win at one point, making the result even more frustrating.
His shot at victory unraveled on Lap 223 during a chaotic restart. Contact in a three-wide battle with Josh Berry and Bubba Wallace triggered a multi-car wreck that also collected Tyler Reddick, leaving Bell with heavy side-body damage and a flat left-rear tire and ending his hopes of a strong finish.
While Bell rues the missed opportunity, Hamlin will be licking his lips. He struggled over the past two races and admitted he felt fortunate to still be leading the standings. But the next track on the schedule is one where he has won four times. Hamlin last won in Bristol in 2024, and earlier this season, in the Food City 500, he finished ninth in the same race his teammate Ty Gibbs got his first-ever Cup Series race victory.
While Hamlin may have been worried about his JGR teammates in the fight for the title, reigning champion Larson now stands second just nine points behind Hamlin following the HMS driver’s win in St. Louis.
Larson has two wins at Bristol, and in the Food City 500 earlier this year, the No. 5 HMS driver finished 3rd. With his 51-race winless streak broken, Larson is likely to be Hamlin’s biggest threat in the races to come.