TOYOTA RACING – Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (November 6, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin were made available to the media on Friday prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race from Homestead-Miami Speedway.
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Progressive Insurance Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
How do you maintain a sense of optimism that the championship is still possible?
DENNY HAMLIN: “I mean, I don’t have any optimism. I don’t. I’m here to try to have fun and try to win the race if possible. But I don’t, yeah, I just, no matter what, I mean, there’s obviously a chance you can win the lottery as well (laughter), but can you really count on that?”
How do you put the errors behind you and move forward from those things?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: “Yeah, I mean, it was certainly not ideal. I mean, we had the had the car performance, had the speed, and yeah, just execution, lack of it, was a reason why we’re not in it and they’re in the spot that they are.”
Do you feel like 2026 was your last best shot at winning the championship?
DENNY HAMLIN: “I would think next year would be my last best shot, but, I mean, we obviously had a great regular season, and the Chase tracks lined up great, but obviously we just did not perform at a championship level the last nine races. So, this is what you get.”
From your team owner hat was there anything from the State of the Sport that stood out in a good way or a bad way?
DENNY HAMLIN: “Not in particular. I thought that it was pretty straightforward. Some of the things that he talked about for the first time with y’all those conversations had been had a few months ago. So, we kind of knew some of the things that are coming along around the bend for next year. But no, not really. Nothing, nothing really surprised me or caught me off guard or anything like that.”
Do you do anything this weekend for 2027 or are you still looking at Sunday?
DENNY HAMLIN: “I don’t. I think probably both just kind of, like, really focus on trying to qualify as good as we can, race as good as we can and win the race. I certainly, from my standpoint, I’m not thinking about ‘27 this weekend by any means.”
How valuable has the Progressive relationship meant to the team?
DENNY HAMLIN: “I mean, the number one car insurer in the U.S. is on our car, and I don’t know if it’s because of my lack of DNF’s really turns them on (laughter) or what it is, but it’s really been a great partnership. I think that right from the beginning, I think things kicked off really well with us in ‘25 winning in our first few races with them, and building that relationship, on and off the racetrack. It is a blue-chip brand, my car is going to be far more recognizable with three quarters of the races being back to one car again. I’m really looking forward to that. If they had their way, it’d probably be all, all races, but we’ve got some great people on 11 car that has been very loyal to us over the years, and I’m looking forward to representing them as well, but regardless of the landscape, it just seems like we went from 2025, beginning of the year, having an all-white hauler to, again, the momentum just took off. Now, winning races helps. Really does help, but obviously, JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) does a great job of making sure that the return on investment for them is has really been good, and obviously they’ve done a lot with commercials that they’ll continue in doing next year. So, I’m really happy that I’m going to be in that Progressive blue most of the year.”
What is one takeaway from this year’s Chase that you will carry into next year’s Chase?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the new format for sure. I guess one thing that I’ll take away is just the optimism of it doesn’t matter where you finish the regular season it comes down to 10 weeks, winning races. I forgot who was asking me at that media day, but someone, one of you guys was asking of like, what’s the final seed that can win the championship Chase, and that number, I think, got blown out of the water by most of our picks. So, yeah, it’s just all about winning races, that bonus for the wins is really important, especially whenever it’s only 10 races. So, yeah, it truly is not how you start, but how those 10 races go.”
DENNY HAMLIN: “It’s a really good journalistic question, Jeff (Gluck). I think as long as the season is, this Chase can be defined by a few really small, short moments, and you just don’t really know what they are until it happens, or it’s postmortem, but, yeah, it’s a long, grueling season, and, but there’s just little moments that just was, like, the turning point that you’re either going to end up winning the championship or not. So that, for me, is my biggest takeaway.”
Toyota won 18 races. How disappointing is it for them not to win the championship?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: “Yeah, I mean, I was probably, I was very confident that it was going to be a Toyota driver, that won the championship, and ultimately, I think whenever we got into the Chase, the 5 (Kyle Larson) car had a pickup in performance, but I still think by the numbers, there have been guys in Toyota cars specifically that have been faster than them, but just we all shot ourselves in a foot, one way or the other. All of us, myself, Chase (Briscoe), and Denny (Hamlin) all have unique circumstances that got us to where we’re at today, and the 5 team just had the cleanest 10 races or nine races, and, and they put themselves in the right spot.”
DENNY HAMLIN: “I think it needs to be looked at personally, internally with Toyota and JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and LEGACY (MOTOR CLUB) and 23XI, I think we have to figure out that the win ratio to the championship ratio, is just not been as good as it needs to be. So, I think that that needs to be a deep dive and honestly figure out what needs to be changed. I don’t think we should just rinse and repeat and let’s just do this all again next year. I think we really should think about what it’s going to take to win the big prize at the end because our cars are too fast for there to be just a few, I think, two, and Martin (Truex Jr) is in there. It’s three championships in 20 years. We got to fix that.”
“There’s a disconnect there that some and it could be all different things. Is it engine failures, one year? I’d love to see how it all gets broken down into how it didn’t end up happening year after year.”
The last person to clinch a championship at Homestead was Kyle Busch. How does that effect you as you come back to the track?
DENNY HAMLIN: “When you lose someone that’s obviously as big as he was to this sport, I think that it’s tragic and very unfortunate. The only positive is that you actually get to hear how he’s affected other people, and then, hopefully, it inspires you to be a better person yourself. I mean, that’s kind of my takeaway from it. I think that hearing the stories of how he’s affected so many people within this sport, and even out the sport, it certainly was eye opening to me, because all we see sometimes is the clips or we see within the walls, when we’re teammates, and there’s definitely a different side of people that you just don’t know until something like that happens.”
How has execution affected this Chase for you?
DENNY HAMLIN: “It was a few times. I mean, I had a role. I think Vegas is certainly one. Now did I love pitting? No, and did I feel a sense of urgency to make up for that? Yes, but those are mistakes no one, no one on the team’s fault for a couple of the incidents I had, the (Michael) McDowell one, I mean, I don’t know, that probably could have gone either way, but it’s, yes, we have an execution problem, but I’m not going to totally remove myself from that problem.”
How do you look at this collectively and say how do you clean this up?
DENNY HAMLIN: “Yeah, because you just don’t know how long that you’re going to continue, most of my career I’ve had fast cars, capable of winning championships, but, I mean, if anyone really did a deep dive in the sea, what happened in the Playoffs or Chase for the 11 year after year, it’s an anomaly of things that just doesn’t make sense, that just don’t happen. So, that’s just unfortunate, and some of it’s just execution of, we’re not performing as well, and we’re not executing as well, like you talked about. So, it’s so frustrating because you know that you’re definitely capable, but you have to still play the game. No one’s going to go out there and score for you.”
Can you compare this championship to last year’s Championship 4?
DENNY HAMLIN: “I felt like last year was like a sudden death, and this one was just a slow bleed. Truthfully. I mean, that really was how it was. I mean, I just was in shock for that, I don’t know, 10- minute period from 3 to go to the checker waves. I’m behind the 5 (Kyle Larson) somehow. I hadn’t seen them all day, that was a shock moment for me. Then this year, through each Playoff race, I mean, I’m on the way home, just thinking, gosh, it’s all right, though, we’ll have to just make up for it next week, and then we’ve just been tricking, trickling along and staying somewhat mathematically possible by being solid, but this one was definitely a cut to the wrist and just watch it bleed.”
After Michigan, if you were told that you would have a mathematical shot at the Championship, how do you think your emotion would have been?
CHRISTOPHER BELL: “Yeah, I mean, in that moment, like leaving Michigan, I think, if you’d have told me, hey, you’re going to go into Homestead, second in point, 67 back, be like, okay, yeah, that’s pretty good, but, yeah, just the way that we got here, the way that the Chase unfolded, obviously has been disappointed, and yeah, I mean, overall, I think, I don’t know, three months from now, it, I’ll look back at it and maybe, I don’t know, man. Don’t know. It’s just we’re in the moment today and it is what it is. So, we’ll go out there and race hard.”
About Toyota
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