Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway attracted 4.307 million viewers, Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal reported Tuesday.
Though slightly down 5% from the 4.554 million who tuned in for the spring race at Talladega last year, NASCAR was the second most-watched sport of the weekend after two NBA playoff games.
Sunday’s race was tame by Talladega standards for the first two stages, but as it typically does, heated up in the third and final stage. Coming out of Turn 4 on the final lap, it was Michael McDowell leading the field. McDowell seemingly had control until Brad Keselowski made two attempts to pass him for the lead, forcing McDowell to go for the double block. McDowell failed to clear Keselowski on the bottom, spinning back towards the wall and collecting the bulk of the field with him. Tyler Reddick capitalized on McDowell’s spin, accelerating past Keselowski to pick up the win.
“Man, it’s incredible,” Reddick said. “Everyone on this 45 Toyota Camry worked really hard today. Didn’t really work out in that third stage for us, but we were able to fight and defend our track position. Was that crazy guys? A lot of chaos. That’s Talladega for you. I just have to give a lot of credit to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex [Jr.], it was just us Toyotas left, and they pushed me with everything they had. Without Martin and Ty and those pushes we don’t win this race.”
Michael Jordan celebrates with Tyler Reddick after victory at Talladega
The win is the sixth of Reddick’s career and first this season for 23XI Racing. Among the first to greet Reddick in victory lane? 23XI co-owner and NBA legend Michael Jordan. Talladega was the first race Jordan witnessed a victory from a 23XI driver.
“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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