Hampton, Ga. — Whether on or off the racetrack, Michael Jordan has been racking up a lot of wins in NASCAR lately.
For the second consecutive Sunday to kick off the season, the basketball great and 23XI Racing co-owner celebrated in Victory Lane with driver Tyler Reddick. This time, after a thriller at Echo Park Speedway.
The Jordan team now has the top two drivers in the Cup Series points standings with Reddick and Bubba Wallace. The six-time NBA champion added a ring to Reddick last week at the Daytona 500, the crown jewel of stock-car racing.
Jordan also settled a federal antitrust lawsuit with NASCAR in December, a major legal victory that secured a permanent franchise-style model and ensured his team would remain in business for a long time.
“The guy has worked hard all summer, and I know we faced some adversity,” Jordan said after Redick’s win on Sunday. Jordan referenced the court battle that ended with NASCAR making peace with CEO and president Jim France. “They kept working hard and this is the reward for their hard work. They put in the effort and for us to come out and win our first two races says a lot about our entire team.”
That especially says a lot about Reddick, who delivered another stellar performance a week after becoming the fourth driver in history to win the Daytona 500 by leading only on the final lap.
This time, he led a race-high 53 laps at the 1.54-mile oval south of Atlanta, including the final two in a double-overtime restart. He snatched the lead from Wallace despite his No. 45 Toyota’s right front fender being damaged in a nine-car crash on the 224th of the scheduled 260 laps. Reddick went down two laps for repairs but came back strongly from 27th for his 10th career win.
“I mean, it’s crazy, right?” said Reddick, who became the first driver since Matt Kenseth in 2009 to win the first two NASCAR Cup Series races of the season. “I just found a way to get back into the top five, and I tried to stay committed to somebody.”
He got a helpful push from runner-up Chase Briscoe. Ross Chastain finished third, followed by Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar (who had a major crash in the first overtime) and Daniel Suarez.
Chastain said, “Tyler had another gear.” “[He had] No fenders, and he pulled us over so fast.”
In a race that included a track-record 57 lead changes, Wallace was in first entering the final restart but slipped to eighth. He still scored the second most points (48) by winning the second stage and leading 46 laps.
“Tyler did an incredible job,” Jordan said. “I feel bad for Bubba because he had an incredible day. But Tyler let him down. I’m very happy for Tyler. I’m very happy for 23XI.”
green turns yellow
Austin Cindric led 61 green-flag laps to start the race and won the first stage after starting 30th.
It was the second year in a row that the first stage of the February race was completed without yellow flags – an oddity for a track known for chaos since being realigned at the high-banked drafting oval in 2022.
Cautions quickly picked up in the second stage, with three yellow flags in 40 laps involving 16 cars and notable drivers Ty Gibbs, Josh Berry, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch. The 160-lap middle section ended under another yellow when defending Cup Series champion Kyle Larson slammed the outside wall after a collision with Shane van Gisbergen.
no love lost las vegas
Busch ran into trouble when his No. 8 Chevrolet was “bumped” by Noah Gragson’s No. 4 Ford exiting Turn 2 on the 125th lap.
Although both drivers are from Las Vegas, Busch, 40, felt a little kinship in taking issue with the aggressive style of Gragson, who is 13 years younger.
“He didn’t give me a chance to make sure I was straight before he hit me or to slow down and try to get my speed back,” said Busch, who finished 33rd. “He passed right by me.”
Ahead
The NASCAR Cup Series will race on March 1 at Circuit of the Americas, the first road course of the 2026 season. Christopher Bell won last year at the Austin, Texas track, defeating Kyle Busch and William Byron.
