Ryan Blaney Wins at Homestead-Miami Speedway

Ryan Blaney won the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He tied his career high with four wins this season, scoring the 21st of his career and second straight victory in the season finale.

The dramatic battle between Blaney and Reddick got center stage with Kyle Larson’s third career championship already settled hours earlier. This victory for the No. 12 Team Penske squad also represented redemption for the 2024 Homestead race which he lost in the final corner.

“I’m gonna be honest with you, everytime I come here that [2024] race haunts me,” Blaney said. “I gave that one away, I didn’t do a very good job at the end of that race. I learned from it and was able to apply some stuff we learned a couple years ago in that situation tonight. It was a pretty cool night battling back from having to come back down pit road.”

As fate would have it, it was Tyler Reddick – the winner of that 2024 Homestead race – who Blaney passed late to capture his season-ending victory.

Rest of the Race

Chase Briscoe sat on the pole and maintained the lead until Lap 35 when the No. 19 team made it’s first pit stop of the race. At an excruciating 16 seconds, Briscoe was far from the lead once the cycle concluded.

After pit stops Christopher Bell took the lead temporarily, but surrendered it to Reddick on Lap 54. The stage ended with three laps to go when Briscoe’s engine expired. As stage points were awarded, Kyle Larson officially clinched the championship.

“I’m just so proud of my team,” Larson said. “First and foremost Hendrick Motorsports, this was statistically probably one of our worst years, but to still go win a championship just shows how resilient everybody at the race shop is. Everybody on my No. 5 team, all my teammates, and GM too. We absolutely could not have done what we did in the Chase without them.”

Reddick and Bell led the field to green in Stage 2 and battled hard early in the going. Eventually Bell prevailed, keeping the point until Denny Hamlin passed him during green flag pit stops. Hamlin, who entered as a longshot championship hopeful, took the stage too late for it to help him.

Hamlin and Reddick won the ensuing race off pit road. The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota battled Blaney’s No. 12 Ford for the majority of the run. On Lap 216 Reddick made a dramatic three-wide pass for the lead, echoing his 2024 victory.

Final Green Flag Run

An early pit stop from the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team allowed William Byron to cycle out ahead of his competitors. Byron and Bell had the best track position with older tires, while Reddick and Hamlin sacrificed track position for slightly fresher tires. Likewise, Blaney had the worst track position but the newest tires.

Reddick, Hamlin, and Blaney had all passed Bell by 30 laps to go, but with 15 to go everything changed. The caution came out after Daniel Suárez spun following contact from Noah Gragson. Byron won the race off pit road with Hamlin and Reddick right on his heels. Bryon briefly captured the lead on the restart but was quickly passed by Reddick. Coming to the white flag Ryan Blaney made a thrilling race-winning pass on Reddick.

Results