Kyle Petty calls out 'stupid moves' from Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson before intense Homestead finish

Kyle Petty took aim at both Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson for their “stupid” decision making in the closing laps of Sunday’s Round of 8 playoff race at Homestead-Miami.

Petty, who was on the NBC broadcast during the race, said Monday that Larson’s over-aggression cost him at Homestead, while Blaney’s decision not to block race-winner Tyler Reddick in Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap left him scratching his head.

“All week long, everyone talked about aggression,” Petty said. “Here’s what I want to talk about as we leave Miami: Stupidity, people making bad decisions. Tyler Reddick showed on Lap 7 what he was gonna do to win when he blocked the 5 car of Kyle Larson all the way almost down on the flat getting into Turn 1. But we go to that last restart. Denny Hamlin takes control of the race. And he said and I’m gonna quote him, ‘Control the race with two to go. You gotta find a way to finish.’ And he just didn’t. He didn’t. He led with a couple laps to go. Then the last lap, the 12 car of Ryan Blaney gets by him. Ryan Blaney leads, oh my gosh, Cinderella story, this is a repeat champion.

“Listen, it’s Tyler Reddick. We saw what he did at the Roval when he put that car on his back, and he carried it back up through there just to remain in the playoffs. He’s coming, he runs five or six tenths faster that last lap, passed him on the outside. Oh my gosh, what was the 12 car thinking? Block, block, block. That’s what I’m talking about. Stupid moves in my opinion. We also saw Kyle Larson drive her off earlier in there to cause this caution. Three-wide, what’s he thinking? Stupid move. You can call it bad decisions, you can call it aggression — stupidity reigned at Miami. And I’m gonna tell you something, the 45 of Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano were laughing at everybody down there because they’re heading to Phoenix.”

Larson’s spin came with 13 laps remaining in the race while battling Blaney for the lead. As both went into Turn 3, Austin Dillon, a lap car at the time, hugged the outside wall hoping to stay out of the way. Larson came in hot, got loose trying to dive below Dillon and spun out.

Ryan Blaney reacts to last-lap pass by Tyler Reddick to win at Homestead

That brought out the final caution of the day, and that’s where Blaney’s miscue came shortly thereafter. Blaney took the lead from Hamlin with just a few laps to go and looked to have a win well within his grasp. Reddick, however, went for it on the final lap, passing Hamlin and then Blaney in Turns 3 and 4 to take the checkered flag.

Reddick had pitted just prior to the caution coming out, so his tires weren’t quite as fresh as Blaney and Hamlin’s. And yet, he made it work, much to the surprise of Blaney.

“It’s obvious disappointment,” Blaney said after the race. “I mean yeah, I had a great shot to win. I didn’t have a very good last lap. Man, I thought I got into three hard and the 45 just blitzed up in there and it stuck for him which was pretty impressive.

“Yeah, I hate to give one away there like that you know. I don’t know if we gave it away. I mean, we got the lead back after losing it on the restart. Just the last lap didn’t really play out for us. So yeah, definitely stinks.”

Both Blaney and Larson have work to do heading into this Sunday’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville. Larson is seven points back of the cutline, while Blaney is 38 points off the pace. The latter is likely facing a must-win scenario to advance to the Championship 4 at Phoenix on Nov. 10.