The Associated Press Ryan Preece escapes his burning car during the NASCAR All-Star auto race in Dover, Del.

DOVER, Del. — In the debut of the All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway, the Monster Mile lived up to its billing as one of NASCAR’s most treacherous tracks.

Even for winner Denny Hamlin, surviving Dover was a high-wire test for the $1 million prize.

Rebounding from a qualifying spin to start from the pole position, Hamlin steered clear of trouble on Sunday for his second NASCAR All-Star Race victory. He led the final 30 laps and outdueled Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Chase Briscoe while avoiding the eight caution flags that involved 23 of 36 drivers in the field, which was inverted after the first 75-lap segment.

“It makes it a lot easier when you’ve got a car this fast,” said Hamlin, whose No. 11 Toyota led a race-high 103 of 200 laps in the last segment. “We strive to be No. 1, and we did it today. It really challenged us to have to go through traffic, but I definitely like the invert. Obviously, it caused some chaos there and took out some good cars, but overall, it’s a typical All-Star Race when that stuff happens.”

Briscoe finished 0.887 seconds behind Hamlin with a No. 19 Toyota that was heavily damaged in a practice crash Saturday.

“It was obviously a really fast car,” Briscoe said after his career-best second in the All-Star Race. “I’m just proud of our group. I knocked the wall down in practice, and we basically rebuilt the whole car. So for them to be able to just get the car back to where it was competitive, it says a lot about the guys.”

It’s the third consecutive win on the 1-mile oval for Hamlin, who won points races at Dover in 2024 and last year. He also started from the pole when he won the All-Star Race in 2015 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. At 45, Hamlin became the second-oldest winner of the All-Star Race after Mark Martin (who was 46 in 2005).

Erik Jones, who was involved in a nine-car crash to end the first segment, completed a top-three sweep by Toyota, followed by Austin Dillon and rookie Connor Zilisch.

Several crashes during the first two 75-lap segments collected more than half the 36-car field. There were 19 drivers locked into the 200-lap dash for $1 million, but Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain still were eliminated because their cars could not be repaired, and backups weren’t allowed.

The field was narrowed to 26 cars for the final segment. Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell started the last stage with cars that were damaged and slower than the rest.

Larson retired from the race with 60 laps remaining because of a power steering failure.

The event got off to a fiery start with a Lap 2 crash that involved three former All-Star Race winners. The wreck was triggered by Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver Ryan Preece, who came down the banking in Turn 1 and made contact with Todd Gilliland.

Palou gets Indy pole

INDIANAPOLIS — Alex Palou surprised himself Sunday.

The Spanish driver who has dominated race after race over the past two IndyCar seasons, arrived at the Brickyard for Indianapolis 500 qualifying expecting to be out of the pole-winning mix. He hadn’t seen enough out of his No. 10 car since series officials cranked up the power for practice Friday, and he had a late spot in the qualifying line when track temperatures would be soaring.

The four-time series champ figured it out. Again. He had his best qualifying attempt on his final four-lap run with an average speed of 232.248 mph. That bumped Alexander Rossi to second with a 231.990 and gave Palou his second 500 pole.

“We did not have speed like that even on Fast Friday,” said Palou, who celebrated by jumping up and down with team members in his pit stall. “We did tires and tried and tried to get more speed. It was OK, I think we were top five, top six but then there were cars that just had a huge advantage on everyone and then, this morning, we barely made it into the top 12.”

Elsewhere:

n Four-time Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen led in a “frustrating” 24-hour racing debut at the famed Nürburgring track before his hopes were ended by a mechanical issue with his car Sunday.

n Shawn Langdon won the Top Fuel Division in the NHRA Route 66 Nationals on Sunday in Joliett, Ill. Chad Green won Funny Car, Aaron Stanfield Pro Stock and Matt Smith Pro Motorcycle.