Denny Hamlin won Sunday’s (May 17) NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway, passing Chase Briscoe for the lead with 30 laps remaining and holding off his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate to score his second All-Star win.
Briscoe was unable to mount a successful charge in the closing laps as it became clear that Hamlin’s car was much better than the former’s over the long run. Briscoe had taken the lead from Hamlin on the race’s final restart but did not have enough speed to hold off Hamlin.
Makes it a lot easier when you got a car this fast,” Hamlin told FS1. “I just knew that the game-changer for us was long runs.”
Briscoe, Erik Jones, Austin Dillon and Connor Zilisch completed the top five, while Austin Cindric, William Byron, Michael McDowell, Alex Bowman and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10. Dillon and Cindric were the highest-finishing Chevy and Ford drivers, respectively.
“Obviously a really fast car,” Briscoe said. “Just proud of our group. I knocked the wall down in practice and we basically rebuilt the whole car. Now that we didn’t win, I wish it was a points race.”
Tyler Reddick was running third with 32 laps to go when he suffered power steering issues and brought his car down pit road. He finished 22nd.
Hamlin took the top spot from Reddick just before the competition caution on lap 75.
Zilisch was third after the lap 75 yellow but was dealt a pit road penalty for a tire taken off of his car interfering with Noah Gragson‘s pit crew. That relegated him to the back of the field for the restart.
Reddick hit the wall with 32 laps to go and came down pit road from third, taking him out of contention.
The race was a chaotic one defined by several accidents involving a multitude of drivers who were locked into the final segment. Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson were involved in a lap-three wreck in segment one, while Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch and Christopher Bell were caught up in a lap 73 crash. Early in the second segment, three more drivers — Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Brad Keselowski — who were locked into the final stage were also involved in an accident.
Larson, Blaney, Bell, Busch, Wallace and Keselowski all returned to the track, as did Carson Hocevar, who went to the garage early after blowing a right-front tire.
On lap three, contact on the frontstretch between Larson and Todd Gilliland led to a big crash in turn 1. Ryan Preece backed into the wall hard, with Blaney, Cole Custer and others sustaining damage. The wreck brought out a red flag.
The yellow waved again on lap 62 after Hocevar got into the outside wall on the exit of turn 4.
Riley Herbst got turned on the frontstretch on lap 73, which triggered a crash involving Chase Elliott, John Hunter Nemechek, Smith and Kyle Busch.
On lap seven of segment two, Keselowski and Chastain were involved in a crash, with Wallace also sustaining slight damage. On lap 16 of the stage, Shane van Gisbergen went around in a single-car spin while racing for the lead.
Daniel Suarez advanced to the final segment of the event by winning the fan vote.
Joey Logano crashed with 62 laps to go, bringing out the caution just as green flag pit stops began.
NASCAR All-Star Race Results
The Cup Series will return for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24. Coverage begins on Prime Video at 5 p.m. ET.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.