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HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Michael Jordan won a championship in Phoenix in 1993. Tyler Reddick confirmed that his car owner will have a chance to win another title there this year.
Reddick rose and held off Ryan Blaney in the final turn to win at Homestead-Miami on Sunday to secure a spot in the winner-take-all NASCAR Finals at Arizona in two weeks. Reddick led 98 of the 267 laps, the last of which was the most important.
“The little kid got his ass kicked,” said Jordan, whose third of six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls came in Phoenix against the Suns. “I’m proud of him… He let it go and went for it. I’m happy. I’m happy. We needed him.”
Reddick loves the Homestead track, and his favorite part of the place are turns three and four — the final two turns. Maybe he likes them more now, because this is the stretch of track that gave him a title shot in a thrilling finish.
“I took a risk and it paid off,” Reddick said. “I don’t really know what to say…. When the right moment comes, you can do some crazy things out there.”
Reddick’s move at the end was the 33rd lead change of the day, a Homestead record. Blaney was second and Denny Hamlin – part owner of Reddick’s car – was third. Playoff drivers rounded out the top six, with Christopher Bell in fourth, Chase Elliott in fifth, and William Byron in sixth.
Reddick — the regular-season champion and the driver who started from the pole on Sunday, a week after falling headlong in Las Vegas — and Joey Logano now have two of the top four spots in the NASCAR Final Four at Phoenix.
“He has an abundance of talent,” Dave Rogers, director of performance at 23XI Racing, said of Reddick. “He’s determined to win. He’s doing his best.”
Reddick was third behind Blaney and Hamlin on the final lap. He went low and passed Hamlin, and the three cars settled into a straight line along the wall before Reddick stayed high to pass Blaney.
“We’re going to do whatever we can to win this race,” Reddick said, moments before Jordan wrapped his arms around him, and shortly before teammate Bubba Wallace came over — his fists high in the air like a fighter celebrating his title — To offer his congratulations as well. “We are fighting for the championship.”
Reddick becomes Homestead’s ninth different winner in the past nine years, joining Jimmie Johnson in 2016, Martin Truex Jr. in 2017, Logano in 2018, Kyle Busch in 2019, Hamlin in 2020, Byron in 2021, and Kyle Busch in 2019. Larsson in 2022, and Bell last year. .
Logano was the only one of the eight drivers who came to Homestead and had their spot confirmed at the end of the season. He spent most of the day in the middle of the herd.
The other seven drivers in qualifying battled toward the front for the majority of the 267 laps. Hamlin led with two laps remaining, Larson with one lap remaining, and then Reddick at the end.
“I had a great chance to win and I didn’t have a very good last lap,” said Blaney, who finished second at Homestead last year.
Bell and Byron have the inside track to grab the final two spots in the winner-take-all final four, although any of the six drivers yet to secure a spot could simply win at Martinsville next week.
The tournament week now has another development. A hearing in the lawsuit Jordan is part of against NASCAR over revenue sharing is scheduled for Nov. 4, six days before Reddick attempts to win a title in the desert.
Lap Drama 1
The first incident occurred only about 25 seconds into the race, when Justin Haley drove into the front end of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and spun out.
No harm, no foul. Even though the entire field was packed closely together at that point because the green flag had just dropped, no one dealt any real damage.
Haley spun off again on lap 186, bringing out another caution flag.
See you soon
Since Homestead-Miami was first part of the NASCAR circuit in 1999, it has always hosted fall — and, more often than not, season-ending — racing. The only exceptions were 2020 (June) and 2021 (February). But NASCAR will return on March 23 next year, and Homestead will not be a playoff track for at least one season.
the next
NASCAR moves to Martinsville next Sunday for the next-to-last race of the season, a race in which the remaining positions will be decided in a winner-take-all fourth race at Phoenix. Blaney won the fall race at Martinsville last season, and Byron won when NASCAR made its first two visits of 2024 there in April.
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