Denny Hamlin came into Sunday’s race at Phoenix hoping to improve on his start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, which included a pair of finishes outside of the top 20 at Daytona (24th) and Circuit of the Americas (21st) sandwiched around a sixth-place result at Atlanta.

Hamlin pulled alongside Christopher Bell over the final two laps after the last restart and the two bumped a couple of times before rounding into the final two turns.

With the two leaders side-by-side coming off Turn 4, Bell prevailed in the drag race back to the finish line to win by .049 seconds, the second-closest margin of victory in Phoenix history and the closest since the frontstretch was moved from what is now the back straightaway to the dogleg in 2018.