HOMESTEAD, Fla. — (AP) — Michael Jordan won a championship in Phoenix in 1993. Tyler Reddick ensured that his car owner will have a chance to win another title there this year.
Reddick went high and overtook Ryan Blaney on the final turn to win at Homestead-Miami on Sunday to secure a spot in NASCAR's winner-take-all finale in Arizona in two weeks. Reddick led 98 of the 267 laps, the last of them the one that mattered most.
“The little kid drove his ass off,” said Jordan, whose 1993 title — the third of six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls — came in Phoenix against the Suns. “I'm proud of him. ... He just let go and he just went for it. I'm glad. I'm glad. We needed it.”
Reddick loves the Homestead track, and his favorite part of the place is turns 3 and 4 — the last two turns. He might like them even more now, since that was the stretch of track that got him a title shot in a thrilling finish.
“Took a risk and it paid off,” Reddick said. “I don't know what else really to say. ... When the moment's right, you can do some pretty crazy stuff over there.”
Reddick's move at the end was the 33rd lead change of the day, a Homestead record. Blaney was second and Denny Hamlin — a part-owner of Reddick's car was third. Playoff drivers took the top six spots, with Christopher Bell fourth, Chase Elliott fifth and William Byron sixth.
Reddick — the regular season champion and the driver who started from the pole on Sunday, a week after he went upside down in Las Vegas — and Joey Logano now are assured two of the four spots in NASCAR's final four at Phoenix.
“He has an abundance of talent,” Dave Rogers, the performance director for 23XI Racing, said about Reddick. “He's determined to win. He puts the work in.”
Reddick was third behind Blaney and Hamlin going into the final lap. He went low and got around Hamlin, and the three cars settled into a straight line along the wall before Reddick stayed high to scoot past Blaney.
"We're going to do what it took to win this race," Reddick said, moments before Jordan wrapped his arms around him and not long before teammate Bubba Wallace — fists high in the air like a fighter celebrating a title — came over to offer his congratulations as well. "We're fighting for a championship."
Reddick became Homestead's ninth different winner in the last 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, Kyle Larson in 2022 and Bell last year.
Logano was the only of the eight playoff drivers who came to Homestead assured of a berth in the season finale. He spent much of the day in the middle of the pack.
The other seven playoff drivers all jousted toward the front for the majority of the 267 laps. Hamlin led with two laps to go, Larson with one lap left, and then Reddick at the end.
“Had a great shot to win and I didn't have a very good last lap,” said Blaney, who was also second at Homestead last year.
Bell and Byron have the inside track to grab the last two spots in the winner-take-all final four, though any of the six drivers who haven't clinched a berth yet can by simply winning at Martinsville next week.
And championship week now has yet another twist. A hearing in the lawsuit that Jordan is part of against NASCAR over revenue sharing is scheduled for Nov. 4, six days before Reddick will try to win him a title in the desert.
The first incident happened just about 25 seconds into the race, when Justin Haley steered down into the front end of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and got spun out.
No harm, no foul. Even though virtually the entire field was crammed closely together at that point since the green flag just dropped, nobody dealt with any real damage.
Haley spun out again in Lap 186, bringing another caution flag.
Since it first was part of the NASCAR circuit in 1999 Homestead-Miami has almost always played host to a fall race — and many times, the season finale. The only exceptions were 2020 (June) and 2021 (February). But NASCAR will be back on March 23 next year, and Homestead won't be a playoff track for at least one season.
NASCAR moves to Martinsville next Sunday for the next-to-last race of the season, one where the remaining spots in the winner-take-all final four at Phoenix will be decided. Blaney won the fall race at Martinsville last season and Byron won when NASCAR made its first of two visits in 2024 there in April.
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing