The Cup Series championship is here. This year’s crop of title contenders features a host of names that may appear somewhat unfamiliar to those who haven’t been paying attention over the past few years.
You likely know Joey Logano, the eccentric Team Penske star with two pieces of Cup Series hardware to his name. The same could be said for “Young” Ryan Blaney, a fellow Team Penske standout who broke through to capture Cup Series gold in 2023.
William Byron is a phenom, having turned a passion for iRacing into a successful career in the top-flight of American stock car racing. The No. 24 driver is only 26 years old. But he’s backed by American racing’s most successful organization, already has a Championship 4 appearance and took home the Daytona 500 earlier this year. Byron is already a supernova. If he can reach his potential, he can finish as one of NASCAR’s greatest-ever talents.
And then there’s Tyler Reddick. The diminutive Californian isn’t one of NASCAR’s most showy personalities. But he shreds when he’s on the track, showcasing versatility across a series of different surfaces, from road courses to super speedways and everything in between.
Reddick took home more checkered flags than most in 2024. Now, he hopes to outpace his Championship 4 colleagues and secure a momentous Cup Series title for himself — and one of world sport’s truest dignitaries.
MORE: Full qualifying results for 2024 Cup Series championship race
With that, here’s what you need to know about Reddick’s team, 23XI Racing, as well as its well-known ownership group.
What is Tyler Reddick’s NASCAR team?
Reddick drives for 23XI Racing, a collaboration between Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and Joe Gibbs Racing standout Denny Hamlin.
Reddick is one of two 23XI drivers currently racing in NASCAR’s top flight. He’s joined by Bubba Wallace, who drives the No. 23 Toyota Camry XSE. Redddick mans the No. 45 car, replacing former 23XI standout Kurt Busch, who retired from the competition in 2023.
Prior to his time with 23XI Racing, Reddick spent four seasons with Richard Childress Racing. He won three races while driving the No. 8 for RCR, all of which came in 2022, his last season with the company.
Michael Jordan NASCAR team, explained
Jordan has long been interested in the world of stock car racing. In 2020, Jordan’s passion for the sport was formally crystallized. The former Bulls superstar and Hamlin announced the formation of 23XI Racing with Jordan serving as the organization’s majority owner and Hamlin owning a minority stake. They purchased a charter from defunct team Germain Racing and secured their first-ever driver in Wallace, who was set to leave Richard Petty Motorsports at the end of the 2020 season.
Ahead of its inaugural 2021 campaign, 23XI Racing secured impressive sponsorships, with McDonalds, Columbia, DoorDash, Dr. Pepper and Root, Inc. all taking a liking to the Jordan-owned organization. 23XI Racing also agreed to a technical partnership with Joe Gibbs Racing, allowing the new team to use JGR’s data to figure out packaging for its Toyotas.
Wallace was fairly average for much of the 2021 campaign. But in the postseason, he scored a major accomplishment, vanquishing all foes in a rain-shortened YellaWood 500 at Talladega to become the team’s first race winner and the first African-American driver to win a Cup race since Wendell Scott in 1964.
Wallace has continued to man the cockpit since 2021, finishing 10th in the Cup Series standings last year. 23XI Racing added a new charter in 2022, securing the services of former Cup Series champion Kurt Busch ahead of the 2022 campaign. Busch spent a year with 23XI before being forced to retire after suffering a concussion in a wreck at Pocono during qualifying.
Reddick replaced him in the 2023 season and has since scored five victories across two seasons. The No. 45 driver won the regular-season championship and secured a spot in the Championship 4 in the most dramatic fashion at Homestead, passing team owner Hamlin and Ryan Blaney on the last lap with old tires to punch his ticket to Phoenix.
What is 23XI?
“23XI” is an amalgamation of the team’s two owners, Michael Jordan (“23”) and Denny Hamlin (“XI” or “11”).
Similarly, Wallace and Reddick’s cars are outfitted in numbers representative of Jordan’s playing career. Wallace sports No. 23 in honor of the digits Jordan wore throughout his North Carolina, Chicago and Washington career. Reddick, meanwhile, dons the No. 45, a nod to the number he received after returning to the NBA following a brief stint playing minor league baseball.
