“He's got everything to lose and nothing to gain”: Christopher Bell questions Denny Hamlin’s Talladega approach that could shape JGR’s playoff hopes

Christopher Bell has high hopes for Denny Hamlin to help his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates win Sunday's YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, since his own Championship 4 berth is already secured.

Hamlin locked up one of the four slots in the Championship 4 by winning the Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas last week. Meanwhile, Bell enters Talladega sitting third in the standings and a 20-point cushion above the cutline. He has only one top-five and three top-10s in 11 starts at the 2.66-mile track, and two of his last three races ended in the wall.

Bell will have to balance stage points and survival more carefully than Denny Hamlin. During a media session ahead of the Talladega race, he also questioned the No. 11 Toyota driver's approach towards helping his teammates.

"Denny being locked in, the outcome of the race doesn't matter for him, we'd like for him to push the 19 [Chase Briscoe] or the 20, he's got everything to lose and nothing to gain. I don't know how he'll race the event though," Christopher Bell said.

Bell also said that he would not feel secure about his position in the playoffs until he was leading in points after the Round of 8 finale race at Martinsville. He added that any winner below the cut line could dramatically alter the standings.

The other JGR playoff driver, Briscoe, sits fourth in the standings, 15 points above the cutline after he grabbed the fourth-place finish and 48 points last weekend at Vegas.

What Denny Hamlin said about team alliances at Talladega

During an earlier press conference, Denny Hamlin mentioned that "seven or eight" drivers will focus on points and survival during Sunday's NASCAR Cup playoff race. He added that Talladega usually becomes about helping teammates or brand-mates, but did not touch on whether he would take part in it and help out Bell or Briscoe.

"I think there's going to be seven or eight of us that are worried about points and there's going to be 30 that do not care. That's always the beauty of Tallaladega in the fall is that there's so many different agendas," Denny Hamlin said (00:17 onwards). "The fall Talladega is where you're going to see a lot of manufacturer teammate stuff going on, even more than a normal super speedway race," he added.

Denny Hamin also mentioned that Toyota has never called him out for not helping another driver. He said that the OEM did not instruct drivers on race strategies and lets teams and drivers make their own decisions following the Kansas incident, where none of the Toyota drivers ended up winning races despite running in the top-5.

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Edited by Hitesh Nigam