Denny Hamlin Dominates NASCAR All-Star Race to win Third Straight at Dover

RPW EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY: Steven Brien / RPW – DOVER, DE  – Denny Hamlin dominated the NASCAR All-Star Race on Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway, leading a race-high 103 laps to earn his second career All-Star victory and third consecutive Cup Series win at the concrete mile.

“I strive to be number one,” Hamlin said after climbing from his No. 11 Toyota. “We did it today.”

Hamlin took control late in the race after passing Chase Briscoe and never relinquished the lead over the closing segments. His previous All-Star Race victory came in 2015 at Charlotte.

“I definitely like the invert,” Hamlin said. “It really challenged us to go through traffic.”

Chase Briscoe finished second, followed by an impressive third place run by Erik Jones, Austin Dillon was fourth, and Connor Zilisch completed the top five. 

“I wish it was a points race,” Briscoe said post-race. “We definitely needed the points.”

Austin Cindric finished sixth, followed by Michael McDowell, William Byron, Alex Bowman and Brad Keselowski in the top 10. 

Reddick appeared to have one of the fastest cars in the field after leading 34 laps, but his day unraveled with 33 laps remaining when a broken power steering belt forced his No. 45 Toyota to the garage after running inside the top five most of the race. 

Another contender fell out on Lap 139 when Joey Logano blew a tire entering Turn 2 during a green-flag pit cycle and slammed the outside wall, ending the night for the three-time Cup Series champion. 

Under that same caution period, Kyle Larson retired to the garage after losing power steering. Larson had already spent much of the race multiple laps down following damage sustained in an early crash. 

The opening 75-lap segment began with a massive accident on Lap 2 that red-flagged the race. Ryan Preece moved slightly down the track while racing three-wide with Todd Gilliland and Larson entering Turn 1, sending Preece hard into the outside wall. Preece’s car caught fire after the impact, though he climbed from the car uninjured. 

Larson also slammed the front-stretch wall head-on in the crash, which collected nine cars, including Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, McDowell, John Hunter Nemechek, Daniel Suarez and Cole Custer.

Bubba Wallace won the opening segment after passing Hamlin with six laps remaining. Hamlin finished second in the segment, followed by Ross Chastain, Briscoe and Keselowski. 

Reddick won the second 75-lap segment after passing Briscoe with 10 laps remaining. Briscoe finished second, Hamlin third, Carson Hocevar fourth and Zilisch fifth. 

The race remained chaotic throughout the afternoon. Hocevar crashed after a tire failure late in the opening segment, while another multi-car wreck erupted with three laps remaining in the segment when Bowman clipped Riley Herbst exiting Turn 4. The crash collected Elliott, Kyle Busch, Nemechek, Zane Smith, A.J. Allmendinger, Chris Buescher and Christopher Bell.

During the second segment, Chastain and Keselowski crashed while battling exiting Turn 2, with Wallace also sustaining damage in the incident. Chastain’s day ended in the garage.

Shane van Gisbergen spun into the outside wall while battling Allmendinger for the lead later in the segment, and Ty Gibbs spun with 25 laps remaining to set up another restart.

Zilisch, Bowman, Jones, McDowell, Ty Dillon, Noah Gragson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Allmendinger transferred into the feature through the opening two segments, while Suarez claimed the final starting spot by winning the fan vote. 

NASCAR Cup Series Race – NASCAR All-Star Race

Dover Motor Speedway

Dover, DE

Sunday May 17, 2026

1. (1) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 200.
2. (2) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 200.
3. (7) Erik Jones, Toyota, 200.
4. (11) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 200.
5. (5) Connor Zilisch, Chevrolet, 200.
6. (6) Austin Cindric, Ford, 200.
7. (4) William Byron, Chevrolet, 200.
8. (9) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 200.
9. (10) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 200.
10.  (15) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 200.
11.  (14) Noah Gragson, Ford, 200.
12.  (20) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 200.
13.  (24) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 200.
14.  (17) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 199.
15.  (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 198.
16.  (16) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 198.
17.  (23) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 198.
18.  (19) Josh Berry, Ford, 197.
19.  (21) Shane van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 197.
20.  (12) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 196.
21.  (26) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 196.
22.  (3) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, Steering, 168.
23.  (22) Christopher Bell, Toyota, Handling, 164.
24.  (18) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, Suspension, 138.
25.  (8) Joey Logano, Ford, Accident, 137.
26.  Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, Accident, 134.