"I was just blown away": Tyler Reddick goes through sensational last-lap moves before famous Homestead win
Following his Homestead win, Tyler Reddick opened up on his emotions through the last lap. The 23XI Racing driver, who was third when he took the white flag, passed the leader Ryan Blaney on the last corner of the race to take a famous win.
It's worth mentioning that Reddick was this season's regular season champion, which was a milestone for him and his team. His win at Homestead also ensured that he would race for this season's Cup championship in Phoenix.
During a post-race press conference, Tyler Reddick was asked to describe his emotions in the last few laps.
Reddick revealed that when they decided to go long, he wasn't sure how it would all play out. He claimed he was worried that the caution wouldn't come, but then fortunately for him, it did. Further recalling the last lap of the race, Reddick said:
"Turn one went about as good as I thought it could have went. I saw Denny get to my outside. That wasn’t great. We settled in there. I didn’t know how bad we were going to bleed. I drove into turn three kind of, I don’t know, out of desperation, something, I kind of held serve. I was very shocked by that. Then as laps just kept winding down, it didn’t truly feel like we were at a big tire deficit. You come to this place, you know tires are a premium. Early in the race we saw the 8, a number of other cars, on three-, four-lap tires stay out and get their doors blown off. I was completely shocked we were able to stay in the mix like we were."
Reddick mentioned that going into turn one, he made the right guess and got to the bottom, got clean air, got in front of Denny Hamlin, and began a good run at Blaney.
"I was just blown away that I had that kind of momentum going into turn three. I thought there was no way the #12 was going to leave, Blaney, was going to leave me the outside. He must have thought that I was just going to absolutely dive bomb it off in there to try to get around him," Reddick described.
Reddick added that when he saw Blaney 'kind of shade down', he hit the gas pedal and 'forgot about everything else.'
Tyler Reddick is having the best NASCAR Cup season of his career in 2024
Apart from his breakthrough season in 2022 with RCR, which attracted Denny Hamlin's interest in signing him for 23XI Racing, the 2024 season has been the best of Tyler Reddick's Cup career.
The #45 driver has already won three races so far, in Talladega, Michigan, and recently at Homestead. Moreover, Reddick also has nine finishes inside the top 5 and eight finishes inside the top 10.
Before the playoffs began, Tyler Reddick's two wins and nine top 5 finishes earned him his career's first NASCAR Regular Season Championship. And now with his Homestead win, he would race for the biggest prize of the year, the Cup championship, which would not only be his first as a driver but also the first for his team which didn't exist before 2020.
Interestingly, Tyler Reddick has never finished inside the top 10 at Phoenix in the penultimate race of the season. But in the earlier stop on the calendar at the short track, Reddick has two top 5 finishes and a top 10.