It’s Denny day in Dover: He wins the NASCAR All-Star race

DOVER, Del. — Denny Hamlin showcases his domination at Dover as he wins the million dollars in the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star race.

This is his second all-star win in his 20th start which makes four total for Joe Gibbs Racing. He also won his third consecutive Cup Series race at Dover.

Hamlin had an eventful qualifying yesterday but was able to grab the pole for segment one even after spinning out of pit road on his warm up lap.

If he didn’t win the pole, he would have been the favorite either way.

At first, it looked like he would play bridesmaid to whoever restarted alongside him if the run to the line was short enough.

He had difficulties on the restart but he proved that early favoritism with his long run domination after he led a race-high 103 laps in the final segment.

Hamlin last won the event at Charlotte in 2015 and his win today tied himself with others in a few categories.

He joined Kevin Harvick and Terry Labonte with the largest gap between all-star wins at 11 years. Then he joined Joey Logano and Kyle Larson as the only drivers to win the event at two different tracks.

Chase Briscoe held the lead multiple times today with his great short run car. Unfortunately, his car massively fell off when the green flag run crept over 35 laps which rendered him to second place.

From there the results looks rather “un-all-star like”.

Erik Jones brought speed all weekend. His qualifying in the pit stop competition was superb as he started third and brought it home third.

Austin Dillon has strung a couple of good weeks together as he capitalized on the attrition today to finish fourth.

Connor Zilisch pieced together his best weekend of his short Cup Series career. He brought top five speed nearly the whole event and brought himself back from 21st after his late pit road penalty to finish fifth.

Austin Cindric finished as the highest Ford sixth with William Byron rebounding late as well to finish seventh.

Michael McDowell showcased his consistency in his eighth-placed finish. Finally, Alex Bowman and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top ten.

Tyler Reddick ran inside the top five the whole event and won the second segment. His race came to a close late as he brought his Toyota down pit road with under 20 laps remaining with an engine issue to retire in 22nd.

Notable Events

The inclusion of the whole field in the first two segment brought the chaos NASCAR was hoping for. But, the chaos took away the chance to win for the true all-stars.

The second lap of the race saw the worst wreck of the day. Kyle Larson’s poor qualifying performance mired him deep in the 36-car field which cost him the race entirely.

He took Todd Gilliland and Ryan Preece three-wide as he made his way through traffic. Watch the video below for the fiery incident.

We're got some early trouble in the All-Star Race. pic.twitter.com/XvCZG5kVnK

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 17, 2026

He and the other all-star cars who were locked into the final segment made repairs but all failed to return to the same form.

The chaotic precedent was set early and maintained throughout the first two segments. Multiple cars had issues such as Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, and more.

With those big names out, NASCAR brought 9 cars to the all-star race who were previously not locked in. That brought in drivers such as Ty Dillon, Noah Gragson, and AJ Allmendinger which made the event feel less prestigious.

While those names might have not fit quite in, the fan vote winner was deserving of his accomplishments so far this season. Daniel Suarez acquired the fan vote win after all the early carnage.

He was involved in an early incident and made immense repairs for the feature. Those repairs resulted in an always appreciated taped number below.

By the end of the race, only around a third of the field was not involved in an incident.

Below is the full results of the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star race from Dover Motor Speedway.

Full Results