Michael Jordan is not necessarily known for his public displays of emotion, but that certainly was not the case Sunday after one of his drivers scored a win at the Geico 500.
Jordan was in attendance for Sunday’s race at Talladega and got to see one of his drivers, Tyler Reddick, win the race. While it is not 23XI Racing’s first win, or even Reddick’s first for the team, it was the first one Jordan has actually been in attendance to see.
Make no mistake: Jordan was very much invested, and he went nuts when Reddick got the win.
https://twitter.com/Frontstretch/status/1782185670687277318
Jordan even showed up in victory lane, where he celebrated with Reddick’s young son, not to mention the driver himself. He even gave a live interview to FOX, where he jokingly took a shot at co-owner Denny Hamlin.
https://twitter.com/NASCARONFOX/status/1782180498455842999
“Denny (Hamlin) keeps saying I was bad luck when I come to the track, and today we proved him wrong. Actually, he did a good job by wrecking so we could get up front,” Jordan said. “I’m very happy to be here to see it. Everybody tells me when we win, we have a good celebration, but this is the first time I’ve been here.
“This, to me, is like an NBA playoff game. I am so ecstatic, obviously for the fans who support the sport itself. We’ve been working hard trying to get ourselves up to where we can 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. … I am all in. I love it. It replaces a lot of the competitiveness that I had in basketball, but this is even worse, because I have no control, so I live vicariously through the drivers and crew chiefs and everybody.”
Jordan and Hamlin formed 23XI Racing in 2020, and the team debuted in the next year’s Daytona 500. Sunday’s win at Talladega marked the team’s sixth since its founding.
We have seen how Jordan reacts when things are not going well for his team. Now we know what he looks like when they win, and there is no doubt he is totally invested in how they perform.
