Denny Hamlin wins the NASCAR All-Star pole at Dover after a chaotic competition

DOVER, Del. — Denny Hamlin will lead the field to green after claiming pole from a chaos filled Dover All-Star Race Mechanix Wear qualifying and pit crew competition.

Denny has been in this situation before. He won the all-star race from the pole in 2015. Now, he has a chance to add to that stat here at Dover where he is the reigning winner and current favorite to win once again.

Hamlin spun into turn three before his first lap and still was able to put together the best result of all.

“I was just trying to get as much heat in the tires as I possibly could” Hamlin said on the spin. “I just didn’t want to flat spot them and I still felt a little bit of a vibration on the lap”

Last years all-star polesitter, Brad Keselowski, will start alongside Hamlin in second.

Erik Jones held the top spot for over two-thirds of the session before Keselowski bested him by nearly a half-second. Jones will start his all-star bid in third which is the highest among the drivers who need to lock in.

The rest of the top ten qualifiers are already locked into the all-star race. Ross Chastain continued his strong weekend as he will start fourth.

William Byron will debut his new Axalta paint scheme in fifth and the reigning all-star winner, Christopher Bell, will line up in the third row with him in sixth.

Bubba Wallace and Joey Logano make up the fourth row. Finally, Ty Gibbs and Austin Cindric round out the top ten.

The All-Star Format

The 2026 edition of the all-star race is different in many ways. Not only from the venue change to Dover Motor Speedway but also how NASCAR chose to format it.

The full breakdown of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series all-star event can be found below.

• NASCAR All-Star Race: Format unveiled for 2026

For this session, here were the rules and conditions.

• 3 laps total – One full lap, then an in lap, and finally an out lap
• Four tire pit stop after second lap (no fuel in fuel can)
• Full three-lap time sets starting order for Sunday
• The pit stop determines the pit crew champion and pit stall selection
• Any penalties adds 10 seconds to the total time

Notable Results

The first pit stall can make () a million dollars richer. Historically, the last box can gain so many spots off pit road at Dover and has won a few drivers the race here before.

Zane Smith’s pit crew won the $100,000 pit crew challenge. While the accomplishment is amazing for Front Row Motorsports, the achievement is somewhat a hollow one.

The winning crew is actually loaned in from Joe Gibbs Racing. The practice of loaning crew members to other teams is not new. Many underfunded teams lease development crews in the sport but the winning members might not be in “development” for much longer. The top-five pit crew times are below.

1. No. 38 Crew: 12.612 seconds
2. No. 97 Crew: 12.841 seconds
3. No. 17 Crew: 12.873 seconds
4. No. 23 Crew: 12.952 seconds
5. No. 11 Crew: 12.992 seconds

While those five crews came to play, over a third of the field had issues in their stops.

The Achilles heel of Ryan Blaney in 2026 came up again in the session after his pit crew let him down once again. This time a right-rear tire issue slowed him down. The same thing happened to Carson Hocevar which rendered them to 24th and 28th starting spots.

All-star’s Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick also suffered slow stops. Elliott will start 31st and last among the stars but Reddick was able to recover to start 14th.

Fast Laps Big Mishaps

Many drivers had penalties but everyone highlighted below suffered a spin or worse below.

Chris Buescher had a fantastic session but he threw it all away after he spun exiting pit road. He later received an extra penalty for good measure after his run due to speeding while exiting pit road.

Daniel Suarez’s crew did not get his front-left tire fully secured and he paid the price just after his qualifying concluded. He lost the tire just before he could fully get out of the gas and slammed into the outside wall into turn one.

His time was good enough for third on the board at the time of his run but, officially, his time was disallowed due to the loose wheel penalty.

With the sheer nature that is all-star qualifying, someone was going to over-commit to pit road and Connor Zilisch became the first and only to do so. He spun off the banking as he tried to slow his No. 88 Chevrolet down to pit road speeds.

Thankfully, he was able to recover without damage but he did incur the first speeding penalty of the competition.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came to the green flag of his qualifying run and it ended just as it began. Loose usually means fast but too loose usually leads to the wall at Dover.

Somehow, Stenhouse steered clear of any major damage and earned a round of applause from the fans after his impression of Jimmie Johnson goes nearly without a hitch.

Below is the full starting lineup for the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway.

Starting Lineup

1. Denny Hamlin: 1:49.298
2. Brad Keselowski: 1:49.442
3. Erik Jones: 1:49.880
4. Ross Chastain: 1:49.911
5. William Byron: 1:49.986
6. Christopher Bell: 1:50.110
7. Bubba Wallace: 1:50.247
8. Joey Logano: 1:50.353
9. Ty Gibbs: 1:50.412
10. Austin Cindric: 1:50.431
11. Kyle Busch: 1:50.899
12. Alex Bowman: 1:50.907
13. Noah Gragson: 1:51.090
14. Tyler Reddick: 1:51.244
15. Ty Dillon: 1:51.341
16. Chase Briscoe: 1:51.643
17. Austin Dillon: 1:52.028
18. Shane van Gisbergen: 1:52.437
19. Josh Berry: 1:52.618
20. Todd Gilliland: 1:54.354
21. Riley Herbst: 1:54.469
22. Cole Custer: 1:54.988
23. Cody Ware: 1:55.858
24. Carson Hocevar: 1:57.561
25. Zane Smith: 1:49.285 (+10 second speeding penalty)
26. Ryan Preece: 1:51.433 (+10 second blend-line penalty)
27. Connor Zilisch: 1:53.135 (+10 second speeding penalty)
28. Ryan Blaney: 1:57.145 (+10 second safety penalty)
29. Kyle Larson: 1:49.216 (+20 seconds for speeding and blend-line penalty)
30. Michael McDowell: 1:49.463 (+20 second double speeding penalty)
31. Chase Elliott: 2:03.365 (+10 second equipment penalty)
32. Chris Buescher: 1:59.950 (+20 seconds for speeding and blend-line penalty)
33. John Hunter Nemechek: No Time (loose wheel penalty)
34. Ricky Stenhouse Jr: No Time (spun coming to the green)
35. AJ Allmendinger: No Time (ignition)
36. Daniel Suarez: 1:50.049 (loose wheel penalty)

BOLD Denotes locked in to the All-Star Race

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• All-time NASCAR All-Star Race winners