That will go down as one of the all-time great NASCAR Classics.
Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick each effectively needed nothing short than a victory on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway to advance to the NASCAR championship in two weeks at Phoenix Raceway and the race was decided exclusively amongst them.
The bonus is that this duel arguably took place at the best venue for on-track racing and everyone delivered on the promise of playoff dramatics.
It’s not just how Tyler Reddick won, but all the different scenarios that had to play out just to give his 23XI Racing No. 45 team the opportunity, and also how the other championship contenders lost their own opportunities to win the race.
Game changer
Reddick had no chance to win.
“Yeah, when we went long, I didn’t know how that was going to play out,” Reddick said. “I was worried that caution wasn’t going to come. We pit, lose a lap and it’s like ‘oh, damn.’
Despite winning the pole earlier in the weekend, the No. 45 just didn’t have race winning speed or track position so crew chief Billy Scott made the decision to run Reddick to brink of fumes in the hopes of catching a caution that never came.
“Coming out in the 20s somewhere, our tools suggested we would finish between 12th and 15th,” Scott said. “Certainly not what we were looking for, but we were going to try to make the most of it, make something out of it.”
At the same time, Kyle Larson had recovered from an incident earlier in the race and was challenging Blaney for the lead.
Reddick was finally called down pit road, never getting the caution he needed to retain the lead on equal tires, but then Larson crashed trying to take Blaney and lap down Austin Dillon three-wide. Reddick had just driven back to the lead lap and only had three laps on his tires when the caution came out.
“When the yellow came out that quick, it was a no-brainer to stay out there, give it a shot, put it in his hands,” Scott said.
Everyone else pitted for tires and they had a new life.
Hamlin shot to the lead on the restart when Reddick didn’t get going and was flanked by Blaney. Again, Blaney and Reddick absolutely had to win to advance after crashing out last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Hamlin all but needed to.
Blaney was able to reel Hamlin in by two laps to go but Reddick really got going after two or three laps. Blaney gave Reddick the wall and he ripped the top all the way around Turns 3 and 4 to drive his way into the Championship Race.
“As laps just kept winding down, it didn’t truly feel like we were at a big tire deficit,” Reddick said. “You come to this place, you know tires are a premium. Early in the race we saw the 8, a number of other cars, on three-, four-lap tires stay out and get their doors blown off. I was completely shocked we were able to stay in the mix like we were.
“Yeah, going into 1, I made the right guess. I got the bottom. I got clean air. I got up in front of the 11. I had a good run on the 12. I was just blown away that I had that kind of momentum going into turn three.
“I thought there was no way Blaney was going to leave me the outside. He must have thought that I was just going to absolutely dive bomb it off in there to try to get around him. Once I saw him kind of shade down, I hit the gas and forgot about everything else. Came out on the other side in the lead. It was just crazy.”
In real time, Blaney was in disbelief that a car that kept taking him to the front, over and over again, didn’t ultimately prevail.
Hamlin must have experienced quite the topsy-turvy run of emotions as he went from losing track position early in the race, to winning the second stage on a long run strategy, to not having quite enough to make that option work again, to leading off the final restart, and then settling for a podium that leaves him still on the outside of a championship race berth.
“I had a good shot to win it and I didn’t have a very good last lap,” Blaney said. “I thought I got into three hard and the 45 just went in there and it stuck for him, which is really impressive. I hate to give one away there like that. I don’t know if we gave it away. We got the lead back after losing it on the restart and just that last lap didn’t play out for us.”
“I was resigned to finishing third there, before the caution, to certainly, got the restart we needed and was thinking I would have enough to hold them off but for whatever reason, couldn’t do it,” Hamlin said.
Ultimately, Reddick won because Blaney and Hamlin both gave him clean air to work with on the final lap.
“When you think about it, I had clean air for the whole lap. I went down to the bottom. The 12 was more worried about the 11, as he should have been. Three and four, I got the top uncontested. Yeah, I guess I had clean air. Should have been a pretty quick lap. I don’t know. Sometimes you have to take guesses going into the corner where you think the lane for you is going to be. I just got it right.
“It’s crazy to do it the way we did it, but we did it.”
Hamlin had to watch as the car he co-owns with Michael Jordan accomplished the first of two goals every team has at the start of the season. Jordan was there celebrating with Reddick on an afternoon where Hamlin had to feel conflicted.
MJ gave Reddick a big bear hug.
“He was just really proud, the fight that we had, never giving up, fighting through the adversity,” Reddick said. “Just really, really proud of the effort we put forth. Like I said, he believes in me. He believes in this team. I know the circumstances weren’t ideal. This is the kind of things we have to overcome when we get put in these positions. We’ve had to do it a few times.
“He was really proud of the whole team for the effort we put forth.”
They’re currently suing NASCAR!
Combined, it was all incredible theater.
Total package race
Even separated from the finish, the entire race was tremendously dramatic and entertaining with so much championship implication from the drop of the green flag.
Kyle Larson, who suffered an 11th place finish with no stage points last week to open the three-race Round of 8, suffered a tire puncture early in the race that damage his underbody rear diffuser and left him unable to score any stage points.
Crew chief Cliff Daniels made all the right changes to compensate and gave Larson a car that challenged for the win but ultimate spun trying to split leader Blaney and Dillon three-wide.
“Yeah, I mean you’re making split-second decisions,” Larson said. “Austin did nothing wrong. I was just hoping that he would see me coming as (Blaney) got to his inside, and maybe he’d run a lane off the wall just to give me some clean air. He continued to run his line.
“I had a little bit of a hole and I was trying to shoot the gap to get in front of the No. 3 and get to the wall quickly to either hopefully stay on the outside of the No. 12 or build a run to have a shot at him in (turns) one and two. But yeah, it just didn’t work out.”
That was a common refrain on Sunday.
Chase Elliott, also needing nothing less than a win ran up front all day, and ultimately finished fifth … not quite enough.
“I just got tighter and tighter as the day went on,” Elliott said. “I was just trying to manage that on the front side of a run, and ultimately I just didn’t do a great job of managing it. When the pace got quicker and everyone started pushing, I didn’t really have anything left to push.”
And that is just from a playoff standpoint.
The race featured everything great about Homestead-Miami, from usable grooves from wrapping the bottom line to right up against the wall once tire management really came into play. There was passing galore and even some underdog top-10 performances from Carson Hocevar and Ryan Preece.
Before the Larson-Dillon crash, there were three different strategy attempts to win the race:
- Blaney and Larson on straight-up speed
- Hamlin running long and trying to make up speed on the back end
- Reddick staying out as late as possible waiting for a caution
What now?
Reddick leaps over everyone, lowers the cutline threshold on points, and now it’s going to be a dog fight for everyone still not locked in.
Elliott and Blaney must win next week at Martinsville.
If one of them do, then Christopher Bell and William Byron are in the points battle that now Larson and Hamlin are currently in.
“Coming to Homestead, you look at the guys who run well here and you’re expecting a winner from the bottom-half of the grid, and I think the same thing will happen in Martinsville,” Bell said. “So, yeah, I’m glad we’ve been able to maximize our points and in order for us to transfer (to the Championship 4), we’re still going to have to be running for the win in Martinsville.”
Martinsville is one of Hendrick Motorsports best tracks right now with Byron winning in the spring and Larson having a recent win as well.
“We did it in the spring and we can do it again,” Byron said.
But there is radically different tire on tap for teams too, the softest tire combination Goodyear has ever produced in the NextGen era, so this race could be viewed as big unknown as well.
Hamlin, at minus 17 has a pathway into the final four on points, but is going to not need Blaney or Elliott winning and will also need someone above him to have a bad day too.
Or, of course, he would need to win.
“I mean, yeah, it’s another opportunity. Certainly, you’re not out of it till they throw the checkered flag at Martinsville.”
But in this moment, Blaney can’t think about Martinsville. He is still in his head about the championship berth that got away from him.
“Yeah, a shame,” Blaney said. “I’ll be picking through what I should have done different [all night], probably, and that’s just the way it goes. Overall, really proud of the effort and hopefully we can bring it to them next week.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.