The GOAT's team is off to a surprisingly dominant start this season…but how did this ascension come about?
Michael Jordan didn’t just pull up to NASCAR to see what it was hitting for — he came to win. And to start the 2026 season, his 23XI Racing team is doing exactly that, making history with three straight wins out of the gate behind Tyler Reddick in the No. 45. First came the Daytona 500, the biggest stage in stock-car racing. The 23XI doubled down at EchoPark Speedway in the Autotrader 400 — the kind of chaotic, crash-heavy Atlanta night where one wrong move ends your whole weekend.
And if those first two were statement wins, the third was the exclamation point: Reddick went to Circuit of the Americas and won the DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix, becoming the first driver ever to open a Cup Series season with three straight victories. NASCAR’s best drivers talk about “momentum” like it’s real currency — and right now, 23XI is rich. It’s the kind of start that instantly turns a team from a “cool story” into a real problem.
Jordan’s NASCAR move wasn’t random — it was personal and it was purposeful. He’s been a fan since childhood in North Carolina, and by 2020, he saw a moment where NASCAR was publicly wrestling with change, especially around race and inclusion. Jordan has said straight up that the sport has historically struggled with diversity, and he viewed ownership as a real way to open doors and bring new people into the conversation — not just as fans, but in the business and competition lanes too.
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The foundation was built in September 2020 when Jordan teamed with Denny Hamlin, bought a Cup Series charter, and made it official that Bubba Wallace would be their driver for 2021. Not long after, the branding came together: 23XI Racing (pronounced “twenty-three eleven”) blends Jordan’s iconic 23 with Hamlin’s 11, and Bubba debuted in the No. 23. From day one, the optics mattered — but so did the commitment to actually build a contender, not just a headline.
23XI didn’t become a serious team overnight — they stacked key “firsts” until the rest of the garage had to respect it:
Once the wins started coming, 23XI moved like a real organization with long-term plans. The team expanded to two full-time cars (Bubba plus the No. 45 program that eventually became Reddick’s home), and by 2025, they went bigger: Riley Herbst was signed to drive a third full-time Cup car, the No. 35 Toyota, officially turning 23XI into a three-car operation alongside Wallace and Reddick.
Jordan’s presence changes rooms — and NASCAR is no different. He brings mainstream attention, sponsor gravity, and a different kind of pressure (the “if MJ’s involved, it has to be serious” effect). But he also pushed on the business side, not just the vibes. 23XI and Front Row Motorsports’ legal fight with NASCAR over the charter system became one of the biggest power moves by teams in the modern era, and it ended in a settlement that analysts said reshaped parts of NASCAR’s revenue/charter landscape.
If you’re 23XI, the goal can’t just be “cute start” anymore — it’s championships. Reddick’s three-peat to open 2026 already put the sport on notice, and NASCAR.com noted just how rare it is to even start stacking wins like that, especially across totally different track types (Daytona drafting, Atlanta-style chaos, then a road course at COTA). The next step is sustaining it through the grind: short tracks, strategy races, playoff pressure, and keeping all three cars in the fight when it matters most. Because once you start a season making history, the only way to top it…is to finish the year holding the trophy.
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Michael Jordan’s NASCAR Journey: Inside The Rise Of 23XI Racing was originally published on cassiuslife.com
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