Ryan Blaney passes Reddick at the white flag to win NASCAR's 2026 finale

Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, passing Tyler Reddick on the outside as the field came to the white flag. Kyle Larson left the same race with his third Cup championship.

Blaney drove the No. 12 Team Penske Ford. He made his move at the exit of Turn 4, cleared Reddick heading into the final lap and held the lead to the checkered flag. He led seven laps all afternoon, and the win came from the one that mattered most.

It was Blaney's second straight victory in a Cup season finale. Last year he won the closing race at Phoenix. Winning the last race of a season once can come down to circumstance. Winning it two years in a row at two different tracks shows that the No. 12 team keeps its speed into November.

Larson finished the season 49 points ahead of runner-up Christopher Bell and 56 points ahead of Denny Hamlin, who placed third. The title is his third with Hendrick Motorsports, following his championships in 2021 and 2025.

Back-to-back titles are rare in the Cup Series. Larson now has three, which puts him with Tony Stewart and Joey Logano in the group of three-time champions. A 49-point gap over a driver as consistent as Bell suggests Larson's title rested on a full season of results, with little left to settle on the final day.

For Bell and Hamlin, finishing second and third is a familiar outcome. Both have come close to a championship several times without winning one. Placing near the top again shows how competitive they are. It also shows how often Larson has finished just ahead of them.

The win lifted Blaney three places in the final standings to fourth, the biggest gain of any driver on the last weekend. He won the 2023 Cup title with Penske, and ending this season with a victory and a top-four finish gives him momentum heading into the offseason.

Reddick takes the harder memories into the winter. He won six races this season, more than any other driver, and was leading Sunday's finale until the final lap. Losing a lead at the white flag is painful in any race. Losing it in the last race of a season with that many wins makes it worse.

Reddick's season also shows a gap between winning races and winning the title. He won the most races, but Larson won the championship. That may say more about Larson's consistency than about any flaw in Reddick's year. Still, a six-win driver finishing a season without a trophy at Homestead looks like a missed chance.

The way the race ended also deserves a note. A pass for the lead on the outside at the white flag requires the leader to leave room and the challenger to commit at the exit of a corner. Blaney made that move with the race on the line, and it is the kind of move that has won him late races before.

The final standings also leave the 2027 field with clear storylines. Larson will try to win again after back-to-back titles. Bell and Hamlin are still looking for their first championships. Reddick has to turn his race wins into a title. Blaney ended this season with the most recent win of anyone in the field.