TALLADEGA, Ala. — Michael Jordan finally celebrated a NASCAR Cup Series win in person for the first time as a team owner, watching driver Tyler Reddick race to victory lane at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.
As Reddick, who was driving a Jordan Brand No. 45 car for 23XI Racing, climbed the catchfence in front of cheering Talladega fans, Jordan scooped up Reddick’s 4-year-old son Beau in his arms and celebrated on pit road.
“He did a great job,” Jordan told Beau in a clip posted on NASCAR’s X account. “You gonna celebrate?”
“Yeah!” Beau said as Jordan let out a hearty laugh and gave him a high five.
Jordan then went to victory lane to meet Reddick, where he told The Athletic of finally being able to watch one of his cars win in person: “I love it.”
This is Jordan’s fourth year as a team owner for 23XI, a joint venture with three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin. Reddick and the team’s other driver, Bubba Wallace, have won races before, as has Kurt Busch, a former 23XI driver. However, Jordan had never been on site for one of the victories (though he frequently attends races).
Hamlin often has told Jordan he’s bad luck, but Jordan told Fox Sports, “Today, it proved him wrong.”
“As you know, this is the NBA playoffs right now. For me, this is like an NBA playoff game,” Jordan said. “… For us to win a big race like this, it means so much to me.
“Look, I’m all in. I love it. It replaces a lot of the competitiveness I had in basketball. But this is even worse, because I have no control. If I was playing basketball, I’d have total control. So I live vicariously through the drivers.”
Reddick’s crew chief Billy Scott said after the race Jordan not only watches every Cup Series race, but also the lower-series NASCAR races (Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series) to build his knowledge of what the team is going through.
“It’s impressive,” Scott said. “Just to see the excitement on his face, that’s what I enjoyed.”
That said, Jordan has been a lifelong NASCAR fan who attended races as a youth growing up in North Carolina. He became friends with Hamlin when the driver had Charlotte Hornets courtside season tickets and they decided to jointly start a NASCAR team in 2020 (and debuted with Wallace at the 2021 Daytona 500).
“It’s good for everything you can imagine,” Hamlin said. “You’re talking sponsorship, your manufacturers, your team morale. It’s just so good in so many different ways.”
Hamlin said Jordan’s presence at the track Sunday added to the win.
“We got to celebrate with Michael here winning in his car,” Hamlin said. “These are certainly important memories that these men and women (on the team) are going to experience for a very long time.
“So it’s great to see. When we got the first win with the 45 with Kurt at Kansas in the Jumpman car, I mean, we have pictures of that all over because it was such a big and special moment. Certainly this one will be no different.”