Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin got the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series "Chase" postseason off to exactly the kind of start you'd expect if you've followed his career for the past two decades.
The winningest driver to never win a Cup Series championship was mired a lap down after damage from an incident involving Michael McDowell, and he was only able to recover for an 18th place finish. What was a 25-point championship lead to begin the playoffs is now down to 12, after he won the regular season championship by a comfortable 89-point margin over Team Penske's Ryan Blaney.
Speaking of Blaney, the driver of the No. 12 Ford entered the 10-race Chase as the driver most likely to prevent Hamlin from handing the title of "winningest non-champion" back to the late, great Junior Johnson. Hamlin was the heavy favorite at -110, but Blaney was listed as his closest challenger at +550.
It took just one race for that to change.
Hamlin is still listed by FanDuel Sportsbook as the betting favorite to win the championship, but his odds have moved to +170. And now it's teammate Christopher Bell who is listed second, after his odds changed significantly from +750 to +340.
Bell has led more than twice as many laps as he led a year ago, when he set a career-high with four wins, but he did not win a single regular season race. Yet it has always felt like he has been just as strong and just as fast as Hamlin, who led Joe Gibbs Racing with four regular season wins, all year long.
After seven runner-up finishes during the 26-race regular season, Bell got the postseason started with a victory in Darlington Raceway's Cook Out Southern 500, and the win moved him from sixth in the standings, 50 points behind Hamlin, to second and just 12 points back.
And given the upcoming schedule, it's hard to argue that Bell doesn't have just as good of a chance, if not perhaps better, than Hamlin to win the title.
The driver of the No. 20 Toyota should be a contender to win every single race remaining on the calendar, with the exception being the always unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway race. In fact, he is listed as the favorite to win this Sunday's Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
For the longest time, fans have predicted that once Bell finally won once, he would go on a run. Now that theory is indeed set to be tested.
Bell was the top-scoring driver in the 2025 playoffs, pre-Championship 4, yet he was omitted from the Championship 4 simply because of the format, a format that historically produced several, shall we say, interesting champions during its 12 years of existence.
With no more "win and in", knockout-style playoff format, perhaps the fact that Bell is listed second, rather than the outright favorite, could make him a steal at +340.
Full NASCAR Cup Series championship odds and availability are always subject to change.
Live coverage of the Enjoy Illinois 300 is set to be provided by USA Network from World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway this Sunday, September 13 starting at 3:00 p.m. ET.
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