{"id":58183,"date":"2026-05-15T19:10:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T00:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=58183"},"modified":"2026-05-17T11:37:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T16:37:59","slug":"nascar-friday-dover-notebook-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/nascar-friday-dover-notebook-4\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday Dover Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Holly Cain, <\/b>NASCAR Wire Service<\/b><\/p>\n

Larson Chasing Fourth All-Star Track Victory<\/b><\/p>\n

DOVER, Del. – Three-time NASCAR All-Star Race champion Kyle Larson has picked up where he left off when it comes to the $1 million-to-win fan favorite event. Out front.<\/p>\n

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DOVER, DELAWARE – MAY 15: Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, drives during NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race – Pit Road Qualifying Entry\/Exit practice at Dover Motor Speedway on May 15, 2026 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The NASCAR Cup Series held the longest practice session of the season \u2013 90 minutes – late Friday afternoon with the reigning series champ Larson pacing the session at the famous Dover Motor Speedway Monster Mile with a fast lap of 157.957 mph in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. <\/p>\n

A victory Sunday at Dover for Larson would give him wins at four different tracks adding to an All-Star resume that includes trophy hoists at Charlotte (2019), Texas (2021) and North Wilkesboro, N.C. (2023).<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my all-star wins have come at different tracks,” Larson said. \u201cI think just to add another track would mean just as much as adding another [win].<\/p>\n

“Every weekend is fun. To me I don\u2019t treat [the All-Star race] any different, you\u2019re still trying to go out there and execute the practice, qualifying and race. It doesn\u2019t pay any points, but we all want to win just as bad as a points race.<\/p>\n

Adding with a smile, \u201cTo me, it doesn\u2019t feel any different, just pays more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spire Motorsports\u2019 Michael McDowell was second fastest in practice with Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Denny Hamlin, Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Kyle Busch and JGR\u2019s Ty Gibbs rounding out the top-five. Defending All-Star race winner, JGR\u2019s Christopher Bell was sixth fastest.<\/p>\n

Of note, two-time series champion, Team Penske\u2019s Joey Logano not only has a pair of All-Star race trophies but his work in this race, in particular, is stunning. His 5.80 average finish (in 15 starts) is tops all-time for the event \u2013 as are his 369 laps led and incredible 11-race streak of top-10 finishes. His No. 22 Team Penske Ford was 24th fastest in practice.<\/p>\n

New Track, New Rules, Same Million-Dollar Stakes<\/b><\/p>\n

Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin joins a group of NASCAR drivers that likes the idea of moving the sport\u2019s All-Star race to different venues and keeping the rules fresh and exciting.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s All-Star Race at the Dover Motor Speedway one-mile, high-banked concrete oval will be a first for the track and drivers seem open and eager to the new challenges this venue and format will produce.<\/p>\n

This is the fifth different venue in the past seven years. And there have been only two repeat winners \u2013 Team Penske\u2019s Joey Logano and Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Kyle Larson – in that time, proving what a competitive event the non-points race tends to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a different challenge and certainly feel like there’s a lot of excitement around it,” said Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and the 2015 All-Star winner at Charlotte Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think we’ve ever done any kind of invert or anything before. This is going to be different, and anytime you can adapt to something quicker than the next, there’s a sense of satisfaction there, but for us personally, it’s – can we get a grasp on kind of the new aerodynamic package, at tracks where we have went from one to the other this year, we haven’t been our best, I feel like.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think we’ve made some adjustments for that, and hopefully, we’ll learn something from those first two events at Darlington and Bristol, and we’re going to apply what we know here, and hopefully it’ll work.”<\/p>\n

Keselowski Still Hunting Elusive All-Star Win<\/b><\/p>\n

Brad Keselowski has been excellent in NASCAR\u2019s annual All-Star race \u2013 whether on the traditional Charlotte 1.5-miler, or the half-mile Bristol, Tenn. high banks or even the North Wilkesboro, N.C. short track.<\/p>\n

His three career runner-up finishes\u2013 just missing on the big check in 2012, 2016 and 2021 \u2013 joins retired NASCAR drivers Sterling Marlin and Ken Schrader for most all-time for a driver without a win. His 183 career laps led is sixth most all-time.<\/p>\n

Should the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion not claim the trophy Sunday in his 18th try, it would mark the most starts by a driver without a win.<\/p>\n

Keselowski\u2019s No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing\u2019s Mustang was ninth fastest in opening practice at Dover, where he won a regular season race in in 2012 and has finished top-10 (12 times) in nearly half his 27 NASCAR Cup Series starts. He also earned a 2009 victory in the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series race here. So he\u2019s hoping the All-Star Dover debut may be just the answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year [at North Wilkesboro] we sat on the pole and led a lot of the race and kind of became unglued there in the middle part, but that was really nice,” Keselowski said of his . \u201cI feel like Charlotte and Bristol and Texas I\u2019ve gotten second places but not the win. I\u2019d like to change that. I\u2019d like a million dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one [race] that has kind of eluded me.”<\/p>\n

Zilisch, Love Balance Friendship and Fierce Competition<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Connor Zilisch\u2019s win in the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series race last week on the famed Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International road course was a test of the 20-year old\u2019s skill and resilience. It also provided a glimpse into his longtime friendship with driver Jesse Love, who Zilisch passed on the final lap to claim his third consecutive win at the famous venue.<\/p>\n

While Zilisch was doing burnouts and making his way to a celebratory Victory Circle, an emotional and clearly-gutted Love climbed out of his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet the disappointment in losing that way, evident to all. And in the midst of it all, Zilisch\u2019s mom Janice was the first to stop by Love\u2019s car to console her son\u2019s friend.<\/p>\n

It was a reminder of the delicate balance between being fierce competitors and dear friends. A year ago as a series rookie, Zilisch won a record nine races and set modern day record with 18 consecutive top-five finishes \u2013 but it was Love who ultimately hoisted the championship trophy after beating Zilisch in the Phoenix season finale.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’d be different if I wrecked him, then I think it’d be a little tougher to have a conversation,\u2019\u2019 said Zilisch, now a rookie in the NASCAR Cup Series driving fulltime for Trackhouse Racing. \u201cBut, I did nothing wrong. So, yeah, we hung out on Monday and everything was normal. It’s kind of just something you’ve got to expect when you’re friends with the guy you’re racing against, is that you’re not going to be friends on the track, and you’ve just got to separate the two as best you can.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happens, right? That’s our sport. That’s part of it. We race each other hard on the weekend, but when it’s time to be friends away from the racetrack and put racing to the side, we’re able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Larson Chasing Fourth All-Star Track Victory DOVER, Del. – Three-time NASCAR All-Star Race champion Kyle Larson has picked up where he left off when it comes to the $1 million-to-win fan favorite event. Out front. The NASCAR Cup Series held the longest practice session of the season \u2013 90 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":58194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[1150,16],"class_list":["post-58183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-dover-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2276443790-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-f8r","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58183"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58201,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58183\/revisions\/58201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}