The rise of Tyler Reddick at 23XI Racing has not only lifted the team on the track but also delivered a boost for co-owner Michael Jordan after a long stretch that included a legal fight between the team and NASCAR. Reddick’s run of three wins in a row this season placed the team in the spotlight and gave Jordan reason to smile inside the garage.
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The former NBA star built a career on drive and competition, and his way of pushing people often includes a sharp remark meant to light a fire. That approach once landed squarely on Reddick. Speaking during an interview with CNBC, the driver shared a story about a conversation with MJ ahead of the Daytona 500 a few years ago.
The exchange revolved around how the team was expected to perform on superspeedways, a type of track where Reddick had struggled. MJ first turned to teammate Bubba Wallace, who had built a record on such tracks. Then he looked at Reddick.
“He asked us how we were going to do it in the 500 or how we thought we were going to be, and he asked Bub first. Bubba has obviously been very good on the superspeedways for a while. And I just remember he asked me how I thought it was going to go,” Reddick said.
“And was like, ‘I think we know how it’s going to go. You kind of suck on superspeedways.’ He kind of put it like that. And he was just giving me a jab, but he wasn’t wrong. We had wrecked more than, probably more than half the superspeedway races, not getting a lot of points.”
The comment struck a bell in Reddick’s head. Hearing that view from the team owner made it clear that the issue became visible to everyone in the room. “So I use it as motivation. We got to figure the superspeedway stuff out,” Reddick said.
The chance to answer that challenge arrived the next season at Daytona International Speedway. During the lead-up to the race, Reddick won one of the qualifying Duel events. That moment offered big proof that he had begun to turn the corner.
After the win, the #45 driver reminded Jordan of the earlier conversation, bringing the remark back up with a smile as a way of showing the tide had begun to turn. Over the following seasons, Reddick’s results on superspeedways improved. He became a contender on that type of track, even scoring wins in races such as the Daytona 500 and adding another one at Atlanta Motor Speedway this year, which now runs with a superspeedway-style setup.
