Tyler Reddick revealed that Michael Jordan took a shot at him during his first year with 23XI Racing. While appearing on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, Reddick told Kevin Harvick how Jordan made light of his racing skills.
“I got the chance to meet with him before my first year started, spend some time with him. We were down in Daytona before the 500 a year and a half ago. Me, him and Bubba [Wallace] were talking something about speedway racing,” Reddick said. “I can’t even remember what I said, but he turned to me and said, ‘Man you don’t have any room to talk. You’re terrible at speedway racing.’
“He just kind of took a shot at me and I wasn’t expecting it. Him and Bubba love going back and forth. …Michael loves cutting it up if you will. For me, I wasn’t expecting that and it was a nice thing. I took it the right way and I’m like alright, well I have some work to do. I have some extra motivation, I was already motivated to get better at speedway racing. When MJ calls you out about not being very good at it, it’s easy to find motivation to get better.”
Jordan’s blunt comment likely led Reddick to winning the Cup Series Regular season championship this year. Jordan co-owns 23XI with Denny Hamlin and is now a NASCAR championship owner with Reddick’s title.
After Reddick won the Michigan Cup Serires race in August, he talked about the impact Jordan has had on his career. “Without a doubt, Michael is a competitive individual,” he said. “Over his career, what he brings to the table to motivate us, something that you can’t buy. It’s a great asset for us to have.”
Reddick also won the spring Talladega Cup Series race and Jordan was in attendance. After the race that took place in April, Jordan compared Reddick’s win to a NBA playoff victory.
“As you know, this is the NBA playoffs right now. To me, this is like an NBA playoff game,” Jordan said. “I am so ecstatic for the fans who support the sport itself. We’ve been working hard trying to get ourselves up to compete against all the top guys in this sport. But we’ve done a heck of a job just to be where we are.
