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Michael Jordan, NBA Hall of Famer and co-owner of 23XI Racing celebrates in victory lane after Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Chumba Casino Toyota, wins the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2026 in Daytona Beach, Florida. <\/p>\n
Basketball legend Michael Jordan<\/a> may have gone too far in his celebrations after his team, 23XI Racing, secured a landmark Daytona 500 victory on Sunday.<\/p>\n During the post-race festivities, Jordan was seen bear-hugging the winning driver, Tyler Reddick, and jointly hoisting the Harley J. Earl Trophy with the 23XI Racing star.<\/p>\n Shortly thereafter, cameras captured \u201cHis Airness\u201d briefly placing his hands on and pinching the lower back of Redick\u2019s son, Beau. The video, which many fans deemed \u201cinappropriate\u201d behavior by Jordan, has since gone viral.<\/p>\n In fairness to Jordan, he shares a close bond with Reddick\u2019s son, Beau, as the NASCAR driver revealed in a 2024 interview with The Athletic.<\/a> As such, Jordan was likely just being playful with a kid he has known for years through his NASCAR family.<\/p>\n Furthermore, Jordan has been seen celebrating with Beau on several occasions.<\/p>\n Michael Jordan Gets Another Ring<\/p>\n Jordan, who turns 63 on Tuesday, couldn\u2019t contain his excitement when his team secured the Daytona 5000 win, saying it felt like he had won a chip.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like I won a championship, but until I get my ring, I won\u2019t even know,\u201d Jordan said, via NPR.<\/a><\/p>\n The victory was extra special for 23XI Racing as Tyler Reddick entered Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500 on a 38-race losing streak, with his last Cup Series win coming late in the 2024 season. Jordan, though, never stopped believing in his star driver.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t even believe it. It was so gratifying,\u201d Jordan said of the win. \u201cYou never know how these races are going to end. You just try to survive. We hung in there all day. Great strategy by the team, and we gave ourselves a chance at the end. Look, I\u2019m ecstatic.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael Jordan \u2018Loves\u2019 His Team<\/p>\n Jordan\u2019s ecstatic celebration on Sunday didn\u2019t come as a surprise to his teammates. Denny Hamlin, the co-owner of 23XI Racing, spoke about Jordan\u2019s passion for racing.<\/p>\n \u201cHe loves his race team,\u201d Hamlin said of Jordan. \u201cI was like \u2018You know, you guys understand the responsibilities you have, that you have the power to bring joy to Michael Jordan. You have that power and nobody else can do it.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing else that can bring him the joy that seeing what his team can do and they took it to heart.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, veteran driver Bubba Wallace used the podium celebration as an opportunity to wish Michael Jordan a 63rd birthday.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want my emotions to take away from the monumental day they just accomplished. Happy birthday, MJ. That\u2019s a massive birthday present,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cI thought this was our week, the best 500 I\u2019ve ever had, and come up short, sucks.<\/p>\n \u201cLed a lot of laps, lap leader, I believe. It was a good day for us, but damn. Try again next year.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NBA\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Michael Jordan, NBA Hall of Famer and co-owner of 23XI Racing celebrates in victory lane after Tyler…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-478494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}