Christopher Bell pulled off a thriller at Bristol Motor Speedway, holding off Brad Keselowski by a razor-thin 0.343 seconds after a late restart rocketed him from fifth to first with just four laps left. The Bass Pro Shops Night Race was pure chaos, with 14 cautions fueled by brutal tire wear, old tires shredding and pushing up in the corners, turning strategy into survival. One driver who didn’t survive the chaos was Denny Hamlin, finishing a disappointing 31st after his Gateway win.

Bell’s win snapped his 24-race drought, gave Joe Gibbs Racing a clean sweep of the Round of 16, and marked his first points victory on Bristol’s concrete. It was the kind of unpredictable night that makes Bristol legendary, where fresh tires at the right moment can rewrite the playoffs. Denny Hamlin, the series’ winningest driver without a title, entered as a favorite but left gutted after a rough run that dropped him from contender to critic.

Hamlin breaks down Bristol

Post-race with Frontstretch, Denny Hamlin didn’t sugarcoat his Bristol nightmare. “Certainly a version of it I think would be cool. I mean it just never really could go or you know I couldn’t. It might have been. You know more, my setup seemed like some others were able to go a little bit longer than what I was. But yeah I mean a version of this but you know maybe something a little bit less aggressive,” he said.

The softer right-side tire turned Bristol into a tire management marathon, with aggressive wear catching many off guard. Hamlin’s No. 11 couldn’t stretch its stint like Keselowski or Bell, forcing him to nurse the car while others pushed. Practice had shown 60+ lap runs under hot temps, but cooler night conditions amplified the fall-off, leaving Hamlin’s setup mismatched for the chaos.

He got more specific, “Yeah I mean it was a surprise to all of us. You know really the very and I knew well in retrospect. I knew now on the second lap I came off the corner and had a really tight moment and I felt the right front kind of starting to shred. But I just thought well we tightened up too much overnight but that’s the same exact feeling that I had at the beginning of the spring race in 24. So it was it was destined to be there from that too.”

That early tightness and right-front shredding echoed the 2024 spring race, where tire wear was brutal from the jump. By Lap 2, Hamlin sensed the issue, but cooler temps and the new compound made it worse, shredding fronts faster than expected. The 14 cautions were a direct result, with tires failing hard, and Hamlin’s team couldn’t adapt quickly enough.

Hamlin kept venting, “I just had a rough day so you know a little biased towards it. But I mean, I like this type of racing, just I’d like to plan for it, you know, but that’s you. Don’t get as much chaos when he’s playing for it, so I don’t know. I think certainly a version of this. I’d like to know that we can run at least 60 or 70. That would put us in a position where you could make the choice to go hard or not. I was unfortunately in a spot where I couldn’t go hard at all. I would just blow the right front right off of it. So this type of racing over a tire that doesn’t fall off.”

His bias from a bad day is fair, Bristol’s intensity is addictive, but the unpredictability left him unable to push. He wanted a tire that lasted 60-70 laps for strategic choices, but the aggressive wear forced conservation, and his setup blew the right front when he tried to charge. The race’s chaos suited survivors like Bell, but Hamlin’s frustration shows how one bad setup can derail a title run.

The mechanical gremlin sealed it, “I’m not really sure there was an issue. Obviously, with the car we just hit the wall the caution before. So again I can’t look at the suspension and tell you whether it’s broke or not. But certainly there was something there that was out of whack!” A late wheel looseness sent him into the wall, collecting AJ Allmendinger for the 13th caution, then a two-lap penalty left him scrambling. That “out of whack” feel stemmed from the impact, disrupting suspension and steering, turning his night from tough to terminal.

He wrapped with hindsight, “Had we known? Yeah I mean had we had the ability to change the car overnight. Absolutely! We would have changed a lot of things but, you know I don’t think anyone in the field really predicted this type of race, especially after what we had yesterday in practice. So just kind of see the pants. I mean it worked out for us a year ago and this time around just we missed it.”

Practice’s long runs didn’t prepare him for the race’s rapid wear, and an overnight tweak could’ve saved him. Last year’s Bristol played to their strengths, but 2025’s surprises left JGR off-balance. Hamlin’s devastation is palpable; he’s locked into the Round of 12 but knows Bristol’s chaos cost him momentum. And amid these Bristol blues, Hamlin gave out a bigger twist.

Hamlin confirms retirement timeline?

The twist is nothing but a confirmation of his retirement. After the Gateway win, he is all but locked in 2027 as his last full-time season, his contract’s end. “I’m just not going to leave this sport on my deathbed, you know, just leaking oil, running in the back of the pack. I have way too much pride for that. I’m way too cocky for that. There’s just no way. I want to be able to win my last race,” he said post-Gateway.

At 44, with five wins tying his 2020 high, Hamlin’s eyeing a farewell tour, not a slow fade. He’ll be 47 by 2028, and the youth movement, Corey Heim eyed for 23XI, means he wants to exit on top. Joe Gibbs Racing’s strong, with Chase Briscoe thriving in the No. 19, Christopher Bell a perennial contender in the No. 20, and Ty Gibbs showing flashes in the No. 54.

Replacing Hamlin’s 59 wins will be tough (that is, even if he doesn’t win more), but his Gateway victory, Toyota’s 200th, showed he’s still elite. “To do that, I’m going to have to retire when I’m racing like this,” he added. The Bristol failure stings more now, with his title window narrowing. Hamlin’s not leaking oil yet; he’s still cocky enough to rile crowds, but the retirement clock ties his devastation to a ticking legacy, making every race count.