Ryan Blaney is developing a rather useful habit of winning NASCAR Cup Series season finales, particularly when there’s no championship trophy at stake.
For the second consecutive year, Blaney finished the season in Victory Lane, making a late charge to take the lead coming to the white flag and holding off Tyler Reddick to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
It was Blaney’s fourth victory of 2026, and this one came with a little revenge mixed in.
Two years ago, Reddick passed Blaney on the outside late in the race at Homestead, leaving the Team Penske driver to wonder what might have been. This time, the roles were reversed, with Blaney getting the better of Reddick in a frantic finish and taking the checkered flag by just 0.314 seconds.
Not that getting there was particularly easy.
Blaney’s afternoon nearly went sideways at the end of Stage One when a slow pit stop cost him valuable track position. Rather than spend the rest of the afternoon complaining about it, he went to work. Blaney clawed his way through the field, gaining 21 positions during the second stage and putting himself back in contention for the win.
The race itself had already taken a back seat to the championship celebration.
That was decided on Lap 79 of the scheduled 267, when the engine in polesitter Chase Briscoe’s Toyota spectacularly expired with fewer than 10 laps remaining in Stage One. The failure left a smoky trail along the frontstretch and brought out the caution, effectively ending the championship battle.
Reddick was leading when the stage concluded, with Kyle Larson running fourth. Larson had passed championship rival Denny Hamlin a couple of laps earlier and was working on Christopher Bell for third when the caution interrupted his progress.
It didn’t matter. Fourth was enough to clinch the title.
And just like that, Larson had his third NASCAR Cup Series championship, with 188 laps still remaining. Hendrick Motorsports could celebrate its 16th title while the rest of the field still had a race to finish.
Briscoe had led the opening 33 laps before becoming the first driver to pit under green. His crew, among the fastest in the series throughout the season, struggled with the right-rear tire and lost enough time to surrender the lead. Reddick inherited the top spot on Lap 34 and eventually cycled back into the lead on Lap 53, holding it through the end of the stage.
Reddick led the field to the green for Stage Two on Lap 88, but Bell wasted little time making his intentions known. By Lap 93, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver had taken the lead.
Larson, meanwhile, had officially been given permission to enjoy himself.
Team owner Rick Hendrick came over the radio with congratulations and a message for his newly crowned champion.
“OK, you can ride the wall now.”
It sounded like perfectly reasonable advice until Lap 120.
Larson was running high against the wall when he made contact, damaging the right-rear tire. Fortunately, it failed coming out of Turn 3, allowing him to dive onto pit road without losing control of the Chevrolet. Still, the early pit stop cost him valuable track position and left the No. 5 team with additional work to do.
The Toyotas were increasingly in charge as Bell, Reddick and Hamlin traded the lead. Hamlin eventually took control and won Stage Two, while Larson, having pitted approximately five laps early, struggled with grip and finished the stage 17th.
Hamlin led the field to the green for the final stage on Lap 173. Larson’s crew also discovered additional damage to the splitter during the stop and had to make repairs, further complicating the afternoon for the newly crowned champion.
Up front, Blaney was beginning to make his presence felt.
The Team Penske driver steadily worked his way toward the front and was running second by Lap 215, looking for an opportunity to challenge Hamlin. One lap later, Hamlin brushed the wall and slowed, opening the door for Blaney to make a move underneath.
Reddick, running third, saw the opportunity and made it three-wide as the leaders battled for position and emerged with the lead.
The final scheduled round of green-flag pit stops began around Lap 215, with William Byron among the first to come down pit road. The Hendrick Motorsports driver eventually cycled into the lead on Lap 222 and appeared to have the race under control with 30 laps remaining.
Then came the late-race fireworks.
With just over 15 laps remaining, Noah Gragson, running 11th, got loose entering Turn 3 and got into the back of Daniel Suarez, sending the Trackhouse Racing driver spinning and bringing out the caution.
Suddenly, the race had become a sprint.
The leaders came to pit road, with Byron managing to get back out in front. The green flag waved with eight laps remaining, and Byron initially managed to hold off Reddick.
That didn’t last.
Reddick took the lead with six laps remaining, with Blaney tucked in behind him and looking for a way past. Reddick tried to make his Toyota as wide as possible, but Blaney wasn’t interested in taking up permanent residence behind the No. 45.
Coming to the white flag, Blaney found his opportunity, made the pass and held off Reddick over the final lap to secure his second consecutive season-ending victory.
Byron finished third, followed by Bell and Bubba Wallace to complete the top five.
Hamlin, who led the most laps and won Stage Two, had to settle for sixth after his late brush with the wall. Austin Cindric finished seventh, while Suarez recovered from his spin to take eighth. Gragson and Michael McDowell rounded out the top 10.
Larson, meanwhile, finished 12th after the tire and splitter damage took the fight out of his race-winning hopes. But with the championship already secured, he had little reason to complain about the afternoon.
For Blaney, the victory was particularly satisfying given what happened at Homestead two years ago.
Asked whether reversing the roles with Reddick felt like redemption, Blaney didn’t hesitate.
“It does,” he said. “I’m going to be honest with you. Every time I come here, that race haunts me. I kind of gave that one away. I didn’t do a very good job at the end of that race. Learned from it. Was able to apply some stuff we learned a couple years ago in that situation to tonight.”
Blaney also credited his team’s ability to recover from the slow pit stop and turn what could have been a frustrating afternoon into a winning one.
“It’s early enough. It was end of the first stage. Knew we had time. Knew it was going to be difficult, but our car was really fast,” he said. “Honestly, I think that helped me coming through the field like that, is I knew what my car needed all around the racetrack. I had to run around these lanes I wasn’t running before that. I think that helped us prepare for the last run of the race.”
There was also a little perspective from a driver who knew the championship wasn’t going to be his this time around.
“Even though we weren’t part of the championship fight, our goal was to try to win the race, end on a high note, get the most points we can,” Blaney said.
He also made sure to congratulate Larson, Hendrick and Daniels on the championship.
“Those guys are awesome. Hopefully we can race with them next year,” he said.
Blaney’s victory capped a season in which he collected four wins and finished fourth in the championship standings. It also gave Team Penske another reason to head into the offseason smiling.
Larson got the big trophy. Blaney got the checkered flag.
And after two consecutive years of winning the final race of the season, Blaney is making a pretty convincing case that he rather enjoys having the last word.
RACE RESULTS
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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