Michael Jordan gave the ultimate compliment to NASCAR driver Tyler Reddick after his win at Talladega on Sunday. While speaking with NASCAR reporter Jamie Little, Jordan, the owner of 23XI Racing which is the team Reddick drives for, compared Reddick’s victory to winning an NBA playoff game.
“As you know, this is the NBA playoffs right now. To me, this is like an NBA playoff game,” Jordan said. “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.”
Michael Jordan is good luck for NASCAR
Jordan owns 23XI Racing with NASCAR star Denny Hamlin. And with Reddick earning the win at Talladega, the NBA legend proved he is not bad luck.
“Denny keeps saying I was bad luck when I come to the track,” Jordan revealed. “And today, I proved him wrong. Actually, he did a good job by wrecking up front. That was actually pretty good. I think Tyler did a good job, unfortunately Bubba [Wallace] couldn’t finish. But the whole team did a good job. I’m very happy to be here to see it.”
Jordan continued: “This is the first time I’ve been here. To my wife and my kids, ‘Yeah we did it. I’m sorry I left you at home.'”
23XI Racing was established in 2020, and Wallace was the first driver to join the team. Reddick joined in 2023 and has won three races since the move.
“I’m really excited about next year, but there’s still a number of races left this year that I’m gonna continue to remain focused on and do everything I can for my team to run well and do well,” Reddick said about joining 23XI Racing in 2022, per NASCAR.com. “But certainly it is nice to know, like, hey, this is what the future is going to hold. I’m going to get to go over there earlier than I planned and just start working on those things that myself and a lot of the ownership over there had talked about wanting to do and why we wanted to get together.”
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