“Reddick just blitzed off in there.” Ryan Blaney was caught with a stunned look on his face on the last lap of the Straight Talk Wireless 400. Tyler Reddick’s team seemed out of contention a few laps back, when his crew chief opted for a delayed pit stop. Yet the No. 45 team’s gamble paid off as Kyle Larson’s spin on lap 255 gave them the window of opportunity to waltz ahead. But the most remarkable thing was Reddick’s incredible speed which made Joey Logano’s jaws drop.

Holding a Championship 4 berth already after his Las Vegas victory, Logano was relaxed. Yet the 23XI Racing #45’s stellar moves against his teammate stirred his relaxed mood. It puts Ryan Blaney in a must-win situation for Martinsville, as he stands 38 points below the cutline. However, Reddick’s Homestead glory occupies most of Logano’s mind, as he compares it with Ross Chastain’s crazy maneuver.

Joey Logano cannot get over Reddick’s moves

A historical feat was achieved at Martinsville Speedway in 2022. In a desperate bid to secure a ticket into Championship 4, Ross Chastain did something unthinkable. He launched the 5th gear, pinned his Chevy to the outside wall, and shot around the perimeter like a roulette ball. He slid past several competitors and clinched a 4th-place finish, in the process knocking out an unsuspecting Denny Hamlin from the playoffs. This ‘Hail, Melon’ move went down in the annals of NASCAR history – and Tyler Reddick’s Homestead move closely resembled it. The No. 45’s speed could also achieve legendary status, according to Joey Logano.

In an interview with Sirius XM NASCAR, Joey Logano broached the Homestead topic. He recollected his thoughts about how he expected things to go down. “Both Blaney and I were sitting there and talking afterward. I would have thought that he would have gone to the bottom and tried to slide you. Or came in and got you at the door, or may have been a contact or something, I don’t know…I think that’s why Blaney didn’t go to the wall. He kind of ran that fourth lane which is where he was running anyways.” Yet Tyler Reddick caught Blaney off-guard.

Joey Logano let his expressions out, making it clear how gobsmacked he was to see Reddick’s moves. “Boy, the amount of speed that Reddick carried into the corner…Didn’t even give Blaney the opportunity to slide up in front of him. By the time you recognize that happened you’re too late to fade up. Like, the fade is over, he’s there. Boom, done…The question I ask is, ‘Where the hell did that come from?’ So fast, it didn’t even look right.” Logano could not help but compare it with Chastain’s move. “If you didn’t know better, you’d think it’s the old watermelon move up against the wall, slamming the fence around. It wasn’t, but the amount of speed he carried was like jeez!”

Yet as Logano marveled at Reddick’s speed, the latter had a different story to tell.

Blaney’s strategy went awry

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Even though Joey Logano said his teammate did not have a choice, others had different opinions. Kyle Petty dubbed Blaney’s actions as clear ‘stupidity’. Granted, Tyler Reddick survived on some wild guesses on his team’s part. When others stopped for a conventional pit stop in stage 3, the No. 45 crew chief, Billy Scott, chose to stay out and hope for a caution. Reddick had to stop on lap 254 and lost almost 20 seconds on the field. But Scott’s wish came true as Kyle Larson spun out on the next lap. Then Reddick began to topple his competitors one by one. But he was baffled when he got to Ryan Blaney’s side.

After overtaking Denny Hamlin, Reddick expected that a dive bomb was the only way to topple Blaney. Instead, the latter defended against that dive bomb and left the conventional outside line open.“[I was] very surprised,” Reddick said. “I was trying to understand what I was going to do going into the final corner, I’m thinking ‘I’m going to have to go for a big slide job and not overdo it,’ but he entered with a defensive line to defend against that slide, and it left me an opportunity to get to the outside and drive in deep to get completely along side of him before we entered the corner.”

Evidently, both Blaney’s slip-up and Reddick’s speed propelled the latter into the Championship 4. Will Blaney be able to make up for his mistake at Martinsville, where he is the defending playoff race winner?