​“Gave Me a Dose of My Own Medicine”- Tyler Reddick Details Helpless Final Seconds Against Ryan Blaney 

Tyler Reddick had Homestead-Miami Speedway in his hands, with the lead, the restart, and the finish line ahead. Then it slipped away in a matter of seconds. What stood out wasn’t the anger you’d expect, but how calmly he explained it afterward, as if he’d seen this scene before.

“No, not lost on me. No. I guess if anyone’s gonna do it to me, you know, never okay with it, but I can almost laugh, ’cause I know how much that one stung Ryan the other way around, so gave me a dose of my own medicine,” Reddick told the media via Tim Moore on X when asked whether the irony of Blaney’s late pass had escaped him.

The line referenced the 2024 Homestead race, when Reddick denied Ryan Blaney with a last-lap move of his own. This time, the roles were reversed. Blaney, in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, pulled alongside the No. 45 Toyota with two laps to go, completed the pass, and crossed the line 0.314 seconds ahead after 267 laps. Reddick had led 53 of them. Blaney led seven, and they were the seven that counted.

Reddick said he kept searching for an answer. He was counting on the white line through Turns 3 and 4 to bail him out, but once Blaney got door to door and just past center, the window slammed shut.

“I mean I was still hoping I was gonna hook the white line really good in three and four. Once I knew he was, like, door to door, like just past center, I’m, I was gonna try and get to his left rear and, and pull him back. But he was, he was pretty much gone,” he said.

It was a cruel ending for a driver who had done the hard part. Reddick took the lead on the final restart and looked capable of holding off the field.

Reddick pointed to the afternoon’s many green-flag runs, which left the surface unlike what drivers usually find late at Homestead.

“I mean, just we had a lot of green-flag runs today, so the track just was very different there, um, unlike what it normally is at the end of a race. I just think the track itself was a bit different, and it was throwing me, the 11, the 24, all of us kinda for a loop there, and Ryan and his guys hit it perfect.”

Pressed on what exactly had changed, Reddick zeroed in on the outside lane, which had lost its bite on the last restart, the very lane that had worked earlier in the day.

“I don’t know, it just seemed like the top wasn’t as good. It just, some of the things that worked in earlier restarts, drivers were having trouble with, so it just seemed like it was a little bit different there on that last restart,” he explained.

The Homestead heartbreak that came back around

Go back to October 27, 2024, and the script reads the other way. Blaney had taken the lead from Hamlin with two laps to go and looked to have the win in hand. On the last lap, Reddick carried the high line through Turns 3 and 4, got around him and took the checkered flag, locking up his first Championship 4 berth.

Three days later, Blaney owned the mistake: he had protected the bottom expecting a Reddick move, and the No. 45 Toyota found the speed on the outside anyway.

Two years on, Blaney said he had endured nightmares over that finish. Sunday gave him the redemption and left Reddick in the spot he once put his rival in. It was also Blaney’s second straight finale win.

NASCAR has seen this kind of late reversal before. At Talladega in October 2007, Jimmie Johnson led as the final lap began, only for Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon to surge past him in Turn 3 and win the UAW-Ford 500 by 0.066 seconds.

Gordon led exactly one lap, the last one. Johnson, the leader moments earlier, settled for second, much like Reddick did on Sunday.

Kyle Larson had already clinched his third Cup championship in Stage 1, and Reddick left Homestead fifth in the final standings, 104 points back of the champion. Asked about his first Chase and the mental demands of the 10-week campaign, Reddick said the format was not what defined his year.

“I mean, it wasn’t really the Chase. It was just, you know, the second half of the year, missed opportunities and just a lot of bad days stacked together. So, yeah, the Chase really doesn’t come to mind. It’s just kinda the tale of two seasons for our group.”

For Reddick, a season of contrasting fortunes ended with a reminder of how quickly NASCAR can return the favor.

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