Other than Tyler Reddick, who raced his way to victory lane in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, there was no more happier person at the racetrack than Michael Jordan.
Jordan, the NBA legend and co-owner of 23XI Racing, was finally in attendance to see one of his drivers win and was on hand for the celebration afterwards. Reddick’s four-year-old son Beau was even up in the arms of Jordan while Reddick did his victory burnout on the front straightaway at Talladega.
Now three years since 23XI began competing in the NASCAR Cup Series, the upstart team has six wins, with Reddick capturing the first of this season. Denny Hamlin, the other co-owner of 23XI, couldn’t be more satisfied with the partnership between he and Jordan and the direction the team is headed.
“It’s hard to say what he brings other than the affiliation of being with the greatest athlete in the world,” Hamlin said on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “He’s obviously got some business relationships as well that he brings to the table. One thing I definitely love about him is that any ask and I try not ask him to do too much, but he understands when I do ask him to do something, that it’s important. And he can turn it on at the right time with the right people. He’s always curious when we do have VIP meet and greets. He wants to know their names, who are they with, what’s their affiliation, what’s their job, like he cares.
Michael Jordan compares Tyler Reddick’s Talladega win to NBA Playoff victory
“To have someone who really cares about the people that invest in him and his race team, it certainly goes a long way. He is not an absentee owner for sure. He cares about this, he is a race fan first. I’m very grateful that we struck up the friendship we did 14 years ago. And what it has grown into has just been amazing. I find myself pinching myself at times that not only are things going well on the track for me in my career but to also be affiliated and have the partners that we have with Toyota and Michael Jordan and all the sponsors that are on with 23XI. It’s just surreal to me.”
Jordan was among the first to greet Reddick when he finally got to victory lane.
“As you know, this is the NBA playoffs right now. To me, this is like an NBA playoff game,” Jordan told Jamie Little of FOX Sports after the race. “I am so ecstatic for the fans who support the sport itself. We’ve been working hard trying to get ourselves up to compete against all the top guys in this sport. But we’ve done a heck of a job just to be where we are.
“For us to win a big race like this, it means so much to me for the effort that the team has done. I’m all in. I love it. It replaces a lot of the competitiveness that I had in basketball. This is even worse because I have no control. If I was playing basketball, I have total control, but I have no control. I live vicariously through the drivers and all the crew chiefs and everybody.”
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