{"id":478912,"date":"2026-02-16T17:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T17:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/478912\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T17:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T17:42:09","slug":"michael-jordan-could-become-face-of-nascar-after-23xis-daytona-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/478912\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jordan could become ‘face of NASCAR’ after 23XI’s Daytona win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tyler Reddick may have been the winning driver of the Daytona 500<\/a>, but it likely will be 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan who is \u201cbecoming the face of NASCAR\u201d after the race, according to Ken Willis of the Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL. 23XI Racing co-owner and NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin said of Jordan being in the winner\u2019s circle, \u201cIt\u2019s big for the sport. He\u2019s the most popular athlete in the world; I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any disputing that. And he loves the sport.\u201d Willis wrote NASCAR execs should not feel the \u201cleast bit sheepish about taking advantage of this,\u201d as it is the \u201ctype of stuff NASCAR would, should and could run with.\u201d NASCAR Chair & CEO Jim France\u2019s appearance in Victory Lane, \u201ccongratulating everyone, including Michael Jordan, green-lights that effort.\u201d No one can \u201crecall Jim being in Victory Lane after a Daytona 500\u201d (Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL, 2\/15<\/a>). In Jacksonville, Ryan O\u2019Halloran noted Jordan embraced Reddick and his crew in Victory Lane before he and Reddick \u201choisted the winner\u2019s trophy.\u201d Reddick said, \u201cHe\u2019s always wanted to win this race\u201d (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 2\/15<\/a>). <\/p>\n

GIVING THE SPORT NEW LIFE: In Orlando, Mike Bianchi wrote the victory by 23XI on Sunday \u201cwill help the visibility of the sport, but there is still much work to be done.\u201d Hamlin said, \u201cI think (the court case<\/a>) was a wakeup call for NASCAR. We have to now figure out how to get the sport back to where it was decades ago\u201d (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 2\/15<\/a>). Jordan in an interview ahead of Sunday\u2019s race shared that he \u201cthinks the settlement will be a boon for both 23XI Racing and NASCAR moving forward.\u201d Jordan: \u201cUnfortunately, we had to go through what we had to go through last summer. But I think coming out of that, you have a much better appreciation for each other and I think it opens up conversations amongst each other to continue to grow the game.\u201d He added, \u201cThe fans make this game so much enjoyable to watch. As much as we can listen, change, please the fans, please the teams and continue to grow the sport, I think everybody\u2019s going to be OK\u201d (FOXSPORTS.com, 2\/15<\/a>). <\/p>\n

BIG MOMENT FOR EVERYONE: THE ATHLETIC\u2019s Jordan Bianchi writes reasons \u201cexisted throughout Sunday for Jordan to talk smack at any point,\u201d but he \u201cdidn\u2019t do that.\u201d Jordan spoke of the \u201cimportance of NASCAR and its teams coming together, putting what happened in the past, and how they each needed to better communicate and listen to grow the sport they all love.\u201d That message \u201cnever wavered following Reddick\u2019s win, even after emerging from a private suite along Daytona\u2019s frontstretch where Jordan saw\u201d NASCAR President Steve O\u2019Donnell and NASCAR Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer Ben Kennedy, whose family founded NASCAR, and whose uncle, Jim France, was a co-defendant in the antitrust lawsuit. Jordan\u2019s relationship with NASCAR is \u201cvery different than his relationship with his NBA rivals.\u201d A \u201cbig part of it is he genuinely loves NASCAR\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 2\/16<\/a>). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tyler Reddick may have been the winning driver of the Daytona 500, but it likely will be 23XI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,12716,634,82],"class_list":["post-478912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478912","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=478912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}