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.

After an intense duel on a restart with two laps to go, Christopher Bell held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin and beat him to the checkered flag in a photo finish to win the Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway,

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.