What Happened?
Denny Hamlin passed his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe to win his third straight race at Dover and his second career All-Star Race.
Behind Hamlin and Briscoe, Erik Jones finished third, Austin Dillon finished fourth and Connor Zilisch completed the top five.
What Really Happened?
Hamlin was able to conquer the first All-Star Race at The Monster Mile, one that debuted a new format which instantly had its problems.
When I walked into Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon (May 17), I was excited to see this longstanding exhibition event come to a track that I can go to in-person. My friend from college that I went with, along with some of his family and friends, were excited as well, and the stands were packed and ready to see history be made.
This race would be far from the traditional format that I had been used to in all the time I’ve watched NASCAR (nearly 20 years). There was no ‘Open’ race to start the event that would fill out the remaining three spots in the field. These spots would usually go to the winner and runner-up of the Open, as well as the winner of the fan vote.
This year, every car started the race, which was broken up into three segments. The first two segments were 75 laps apiece and still provided the drivers who were not locked into the main event a chance to race their way in.
The drivers already locked in had the chance to control where they would be starting the main event, as the 2026 event would take their average finishes from the two 75-lap segments and create the starting lineup. On paper, this seemed like a new and interesting way to set the field, but this whole format went up in smoke only two laps into the race.
Ryan Preece came down the track going into turn 1 and set off a multi-car crash that saw his No. 60 Ford not only back into the outside wall hard but also burst into flames while sliding down the banking.
Kyle Larson was caught up in the crash, which put him behind the wall all the way until the closing laps of the second segment. He was still locked into the main event since his car was able to make laps. However, his car was so banged up that he had no shot at competing for the $1 million prize.
The same went for other contenders that were involved in that wreck and in other crashes later on in the first two segments. Ryan Blaney‘s car was damaged in the crash on the second lap. Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch got included in a pileup later on in the race after Riley Herbst went sideways on the frontstretch in front of half the field.
Other drivers weren’t even fortunate enough to return to the track for the main event. Locked in drivers like perennial Most Popular Driver Chase Elliott and reigning Coca-Cola 600 winner Ross Chastain had so much damage to their cars that they couldn’t even get back out on track for the actual All-Star Race.
While sitting out in the sun, I couldn’t help but think of fans who spent their time, energy and money to come to Dover to end up not even seeing their favorite drivers make it to the part of the event that handed out the big check.
The format itself was also confusing at times, especially to fans who are more casual and weren’t up to date with the changes … like when the field inverted between the first two segments.
With the red flag at the beginning of the race for the Preece fire to go along with the several stoppages between segments, this race was a tad short of being four hours long. All-Star Races should not be this long, as all through my childhood years watching the All-Star Race at Charlotte, the races were always quick and the last segment was usually a quick dash to the finish and not a long 200-lap stint.
At the end of the day, a rightful driver walked away with the grand prize, but I just wish we got to the ending a little quicker and with more deserving All-Star-caliber drivers in contention for the win.
What Does NASCAR Do in the Future?
Personally, I would like to see NASCAR go back to basics with the All-Star Race, and that means bringing it back to Charlotte Motor Speedway. This would help give the teams some rest, as they would be close to their shops and homes. I would also like to see a return of the Open race to start the night, followed by a shorter, classic version of the main event.
Although I liked being there today among the crowd, it still felt off to me that an All-Star Race was being held in the daytime. It just feels right to have the event under the lights, and with how solid the racing product has been at Charlotte with this car, it would make a lot of sense to go back there.
As for Dover, it should definitely stay on the schedule and return to being a 400-mile points race. I thought the horsepower boost helped make the racing better; it seemed like the faster cars had an easier time making passes compared to previous years.
It still is sad to not have Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., on the schedule anymore, and it would really hurt to see Dover get taken away too. Aside from it being a mainstay on the schedule for decades, it is a unique track, and as someone from the Northeast, I would hate to see a track that I can go to in-person lose a date.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Alex Bowman and the No. 48 team brought the usual Ally-sponsored car to the track this weekend, but with a different kind of twist to it.
A fire-breathing dragon went along both sides of the car, bringing a new look to a familiar paint scheme that stood out in a cool way at the track.
What’s Next?
The NASCAR Cup Series will get back to points racing next week in its longest event of the season.
The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway will take place on Sunday, May 24 at 6 p.m. ET. It will be the first of five races to be broadcast on Prime Video.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
I had the same thoughts about having the all star race back in Charlotte. Not only did it give the road crews a chance to spend some time at home, but it added to the pageantry of the entire week leading up to the 600. The format was so convoluted that you needed a slide rule to figure it out, Nascar could use a big dose of the KISS method.
an allstar race with all charter teams racing was a bad idea. i always like the hooligan race to make the allstar race. and yes it belongs in charlotte under the lights. this was just a race just shy of 400 miles at dover.
seeing the caution fly at lap 1.5 i knew it was going to be a cluster.
So I actually didn’t watch it. Every time I’d flip back to it, there was either commercials or a yellow / other pause. Sounds like nothing much was missed.
I get that fans of certain drivers might have felt cheated by watching them crash out on lap 2, but it’s not like that can’t happen at a normal race. Granted an “All-Star” show should probably include Chase Elliott, but eh… I don’t mind seeing NASCAR experiment with formats at different tracks. Maybe that’s the real benefit of moving the All-Star race around, seeing if something different works at different tracks. I’m just not that interested in a third race on the Charlotte oval, especially if only half a field of cars is going to be on track at any one time. I think I might like the full-field format of the open race adding a danger factor for locked-in cars surviving the aggression of the bubble cars. At the very least I don’t think the fans at Dover got cheated. It looked like a regular Dover race, it was about as long as a regular Dover race, and there was something approaching a full field of cars running most of the time. As an added bonus, nothing about the stupid playoffs was mentioned as far as I know.
I agree with you. It was a bummer about the lap 2 crash, but the rest of the race was great, and offered something different than the usual all-star format.
But as always, NASCAR fans hate change, but they hate the same old boring races, too. NASCAR moved the Busch Clash and the All Star race because they were getting stale and boring.
The grass is always greener. We always need change and we always need nostalgia fixes. We need to shake things up so they feel fresh but with a balance of keeping things the same forever. We need a new car because this one is worse than the one before it, which was worse than the one before that, which was worse than etc.
“…the stands were packed…”
I think we have a different definition of ‘packed’ – the aerial shots showed a LOT of empty seats.
As for the race itself, it seemed like a lot of random chaos that didn’t count for anything, cars could still be ‘locked in’ to the final segment. Some were taken out by damage, and NASCAR didn’t allow backup cars, which they have done in the past for All-Star races.
As always, the only thing consistent about NASCAR is the inconsistency.
You beat me too it. I broke up laughing when I read “the stands were packed”. I didn’t need to watch to know the stands would be empty. I got six emails Friday into Saturday, begging me to buy tickets. The last came at 7:20 Saturday night!
Like the writer, I too live close to Dover. My first race was 1979. Dover’s races are often long drawn out affairs with little to no passing…very much like yesterday. Four hours isn’t bad, when the Cup races were 500 miles, they never seemed to end. They were not so affectionately known as “The Longest Day at Dover”.
Please NASCAR, no more failed experiments. If you have to have an All-Star race (which is debatable), return it to Charlotte, make it a real All-Star race, and run it under the lights again. Maybe try the Wednesday night before the 600, and give the teams the prior weekend before off.
Exactly! Give the teams a break, and add the pit road challenge and ‘all star’ race to the celebration for the entire weekend.
There were no flaws, the race came off exactly as planned. This format was designed to crash cars and get fans excited, which it did. The only way the race could have been any better for NASCAR is if a driver had been killed, which would give a huge boost in TV ratings as well as at the track attendance, as we have seen before.
Greatest drivers in the world? It looked like a normal day on I-95 through a construction zone. It was a reverse demolition derby where the cars started in new condition and finished in junkyard condition.
NASCAR doing what NASCAR does.
The winner has gotten $1M since 2003. Kind of a weak prize. It used to be season winners, and then the car owners who won could use their current drivers. Make it something special. Just because you’re popular doesn’t mean that you should be in there.
Dover is not a great track. Go back to Charlotte the week before the 600.
The first problem I noticed was the empty stands.
What the heck is Kyle Busch’s problem? His car is finally running halfway decent and now he’s getting speeding penalties. The first one that involved him in that crash was bad enough, but two is ridiculous. Dillon finished 4th and I can’t help but wonder where Busch would have finished without those penalties and damaged car.
Now we’re on to the next 5 races with prime that I can’t watch. I hope that those empty stands are a part of the result of NASCAR’s horrible decision to give those 5 races to prime network. Dale Jr can take his asinine commercial advertising for prime and put it where the sun doesn’t shine, too.
The format SUCKED.
What idiot thought it was a good idea to make the real all-stars have to mix it up with the dregs for 150 laps and sacrifice their cars before the actual all-star race started? Stupid. Stupid . Stupid.
I pretty much stopped caring after the first wreck ON LAP 2!!!
The degree of stupidity of NASCAR’s leadership is legendary.
NA$CAR has always believed in Quantity over quality!