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.

By winning an online fan vote, Daniel Suarez advanced to the final segment with a damaged car and finished four laps down.

Next is the Coca-Cola 600, the longest race of the season, Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Chastain is the defending race winner and is seeking his first victory since.