NASCAR insiders evaluate Ryan Blaney's last-lap decision making at Homestead

Tyler Reddick left the NASCAR world dumbfounded with the last-lap move he pulled off to win at Homestead-Miami Speedway, especially Ryan Blaney.

The No. 45 wheelman rocketed past the reigning Cup Series champion exiting the final turn, and left Blaney wondering what else he could’ve done to keep Reddick behind him. During the latest episode of The Teardown, NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi evaluated Blaney’s decision-making, as he now enters a must-win at Martinsville Raceway this coming weekend.

“He’s going to look back and he’s going to go, ‘I have regret. There’s things I wish I would have done differently.’ … You could tell, reading his body language, he was kicking himself, and that this was not — the last lap and how it unfolded, did not go how he expected it to. He could not believe, though, that Reddick on those tires could make that move that he did. He was absolutely flabbergasted that Reddick could go in there and his car was able to stick the way it did,” Bianchi stated. “So, I’m putting myself in his mind a little bit of saying, you’ve got a guy behind you on older tires, like you’ve got to go in there and make that move. I want him to try that and (I) think he’s not going to be able to do it.

“Reddick said later, he thought, that Blaney gave him the high line because he was worried that maybe if Reddick goes in there, he’s going to dive-bomb him and then try to do a slide job kind of thing. We saw Reddick do something similar to that earlier this year at Darlington, but that was working through what Blaney was saying. That, to me, seems like the step there is that, ‘Hey, this guy’s in older tires. I don’t think he’s going to be able to hang it on the top line like that and make it stick.'”

While Bianchi believes Blaney will have some regret, Gluck thinks he’s going to chalk it up to simply getting beat, as circumstances outside of his control were at play due to Reddick’s incredible driving.

“Coming into the last lap, I think as the leader especially, you’ve got to go where you think your car is faster. You’re just thinking that there’s no way Reddick should have been able to do what he did on older tires at Homestead,” Gluck added. “I get they weren’t that much older tires, but they were older tires. So to give him the top, I mean, first of all, if you go run the top and he then pulls down and somehow crosses you over and does a slide job, then you just gave it away. If you go up top and you scrub the fence for some reason, then you just gave it away.

“I kind of feel like, you have a lead, you’ve cleared Denny, which should have been the biggest thing to worry about. Then you just have Reddick on older tires, you’re just not thinking that — it’s just not going to stick. So, I get that he could second guess himself, but in all honesty, the reaction should just be, I’d tip my cap. I mean, you just beat me straight up, so what can you do? I just, I don’t think you anticipate that. And 99 times out of 100, I would think that that doesn’t work. Reddick doesn’t even know how he did it. So, I think you just go, ‘Wow, that was unbelievable. Damn, we got beat.’”

Regardless, Tyler Reddick has miraculously made it to the Championship 4, while Ryan Blaney will be left wondering what could’ve been if he doesn’t end up winning Martinsville this weekend. The pressure is on for the No. 12 team in Virginia, and we’ll see if they can come through two seasons in a row.