Motorsport photo Nick DeGroot · Motorsport Mon, November 9, 2026 at 5:44 PM UTC · 4 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2024, Ryan Blaney lost the Homestead race in pretty brutal fashion. He held the lead entering Turn 3 on the final lap, only to have Tyler Reddick rip around his outside and snatch the win away from the No. 12 Team Penske Ford.
Fast forward two years, and NASCAR is back at Homestead for the 2026 season finale. This time, Reddick is leading entering Turn 3 (with still one lap to go), and it's Blaney who rips the top and races by to take the win.
"I tell you, last two years I've had nightmares about that finish (smiling)," said Blaney in the winner's press conference. "It's nice to get a little redemption from that.
"It's fun to race Tyler. He and I race with a lot of respect. It's always fun to go up against guys like that."
Homestead is a multi-groove race track and with so many options from the white line to the actual wall, sometimes you're bound to guess wrong with a rival on your back bumper.
"There's the leader, trying to pick what lane is going to be the best," continued Blaney. "If you choose wrong, you can really hurt yourself. That's what happened to me a couple years ago. I chose wrong on lanes. I bet if you ask him, he probably would have made a different decision, too, the lap prior.
"It's fun battles like that. I think we're even now. That makes me feel a little bit better than I did a couple years ago."
As for Reddick's side of the story, he commented that Blaney came "out of nowhere," and his gut told him to defend the bottom in Turns 3 and 4.
"Me being me, I felt like if it played out how I wanted it to, I would have stalled his momentum out and ran the top of (Turns) 3 and 4, but he just had too big of a run, I think. I blocked low and it seemed in the moment he was still able to break the plane of my back bumper, and I lost the ability to have the top lane. Very fitting that it played out the way that it did but pretty much exactly the same as what we did in 2024."
Watch: Ryan Blaney wins Homestead thriller, Kyle Larson crowned champion
Blaney tends to end the year on a high note more often than not, placing first or second in the season finale in each of the last five years. He also managed to win the finale in back-to-back years, doing so with a late-race pass at two different tracks (Phoenix 2025 and Homestead 2026).
"Yeah, definitely went out on a high note," said Blaney of his latest victory. "We weren't racing for a championship this weekend, so it's just, okay, what are your goals? The goal is to try to win the race. There were some points positions we could make up. We were able to do that tonight, which is great for our group.
"You just want to end on a high note. If you're not running for a championship, you want to win the last race. Unfortunately not racing for a championship, but it's good momentum for the winner. It's nice to celebrate with those guys one last time.
"They did a great job. The Chase that we had just wasn't good enough. Had too many blemishes. Other than that, I'm really proud how we ran the last 10 weeks. We just didn't have the finishes that we needed to kind of contend.
"They should be proud of themselves. It's nice to drive for a great team. Even though we weren't in the championship race this weekend, they put their head down and really went to work and gave as much effort as if we were racing for a championship."
Blaney is the first driver to win the season finale in back-to-back years since the late Greg Biffle did it in three consecutive years from 2004 through 2006.
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Watch: Blaney calls Homestead victory redemption after heartbreaking 2024 finish
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Source: Sports
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