Christopher Bell has flown under the radar throughout the playoffs, a fact that surprises many. Denny Hamlin is not among this group due to the similarities between Bell and a Hall of Fame driver.
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"He's not outspoken that much," Hamlin said about Bell at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "He's soft-spoken, so typically people like that always fly under the radar.
"Matt Kenseth — I consider them very, very similar when I think about who Christopher is, and I got to work with both of them. I feel like there is a lot of Matt Kenseth in Christopher, kind of with their personalities and their talent level."
Hamlin has extensive experience working with both drivers. He was teammates with Kenseth between 2013-17 as the 2003 Cup champion won 15 races in the No. 20 Toyota.
He has been teammates with Bell since 2021. Although the Oklahoma native was a Toyota teammate in 2020 as he drove for Leavine Family Racing.
Bell hasn't been dominant at times like Kenseth was — it's harder to win seven races in a season in the Next Gen era. However, he has continued to showcase speed while contending for wins.
The driver of the No. 20 has nine Cup wins — eight in the Next Gen era. He won three races in 2022, including two elimination races, to reach the Championship 4. He won two more times last season to reach the Championship 4 once again.
Bell is the only driver in the Cup Series to lock up a spot in the Championship 4 in the first two seasons of the Next Gen era, and yet, his ability to fly under the radar was a storyline in the Netflix series "NASCAR: Full Speed."
Check out @NASCAR Full Speed on @netflix - Jan. 30th pic.twitter.com/G4kPj7jcPA
— Christopher Bell (@CBellRacing) January 30, 2024
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver already has three wins this season, and he is back in contention for a spot in the Championship 4.
Bell hasn't won a race since June, but he has posted nine top-10 finishes in the last 14 races. This includes a runner-up behind Kyle Larson last weekend at the Charlotte Roval.
This 14-race stretch included three finishes of 35th or worse due to crashes, but Hamlin sees these as outliers in what has been a strong stretch of racing for his teammate.
"They kind of went through a rough patch during the course of the summer, similar to us, where they were getting real bad finishes, crashing early in races — but they've always had really good, elite speed," Hamlin said.
"A lot of the metrics that I look at show that (Bell's) one of the fastest when it comes to setting fast lap times and driver ratings, and things like that — probably laying in the weeds is a good way to summarize that 20 team and Christopher."
With Bell winning the pole for Sunday's playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he's at the front of the pack instead of laying in the weeds. He's in a great position to contend for the win at a track where he consistently has speed and potentially put himself into the Championship 4 once again with a win.
If Bell accomplishes this, he is unlikely to remain under the radar. He will have a reputation as a consistent championship threat.
Not that it will change how he approaches the season.
"I just don't care," Bell said at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "I'm going to do my deal, whether I'm headlines or I'm not headlines.
"I'm going to be frustrated whenever I lose, and I'm going to be happy whenever I win, no matter what the headlines say. I don't care if you guys talk about me or not. I'm going to try my hardest to win the race, and that is that."
