Michael Jordan‘s 23XI racing team is having the most charmed start to a NASCAR season, ever.
Jordan, who co-owns the team with Denny Hamlin, saw driver Tyler Reddick ease past the checkered flag at the NASCAR Cup Series DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, on Sunday. In the process, Reddick became the first driver to win the first three Cup Series races of the season.
Reddick’s win comes two weeks after his historic Daytona 500 win, which gave Jordan his first win in NASCAR’s biggest race and made him the second Black owner of a NASCAR team to win the race, joining fellow North Carolina Tar Heel Brad Daughtery.
“It’s one race, but it was so important,” Reddick said in victory lane. “It’s so fitting to get three in a row and make history.”
Jordan echoed his sentiments. Already gearing up for next week’s race in Phoenix, the NBA Hall of Famer said was “proud” of the 23XI team, giving most of the credit to fellow co-owner Hamlin.
“I just put up the money,” Jordan said. “Denny’s done an incredible job building this team.”
During the week, Reddick was reminded of Jordan liking things in threes. The basketball legend won his NBA titles in a pair of three-peats, the first from 1991 to 1993 and the second from 1996 to 1998.
Winning in Austin, Atlanta ,and Daytona was seemingly buoyed by another victory for 23XI Racing. Before the season began, NASCAR settled with the team after an eight-day trial that helped propel NASCAR into the future by having its various teams operate like franchises do in the other big leagues like the NFL, NBA and NHL.
“Like two competitors, obviously we tried to get as much done in each other’s favor,” Jordan said during a December press conference. “I’ve said this from Day 1: the only way this sport is going to grow is we have to find some synergy between the two entities. I think we’ve gotten to that point, unfortunately it took 16 months to get here, but I think level heads have gotten us to this point where we can actually work together and grow this sport. I am very proud about that and I think Jim [France] feels the same.”
Source: theGrio
