Michael Jordan cautiously crawled out of his booth and down an empty lane filled with cameras, bent bumpers and delirium. He was someone I really needed to meet. At least someone did something similar to Jordan himself this day at Charlotte Motor Speedway. They won the NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship, but with an hour left in this playoff race, it looked like their season was lost. A man who beat fate with the performance of his Aero clutch is an immortal record. It is a 30-lap series in which a driver is 12 points under the cutoff and 2 points or more in the playoff. Round 16 is over.
Jordan should have seen Tyler Reddick. “It was a really tough one,” Jordan said when a reporter asked him about it on the way to Reddick, who runs the Jordan-owned 23XI Racing team. Then the six-time NBA champion, whose influence on the sport was almost legendary, shook his head and laughed. He had felt this way before. That scene after the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord may not make it into the history books. Series host and poster boy Kyle Larson won effortlessly. Drivers who started the day higher than the break advanced to the next stage of the playoffs (with the exception of a late post-race exchange involving Alex Bowman and Joey Logano after Bowman was disqualified for not meeting the post-race weight requirements race in NASCAR).
There is no punching or jealousy. There is no end to the photos taking social media by storm. This is a given in today’s world of trophy racing. But what he did on Sunday was a performance as good as Jordan’s, one that doesn’t need to be revisited. And it happened. Reddick stared down the barrel of disaster (none of NASCAR’s season champions have ever made it past eight laps) and made his way to the exit. Lap after lap, return after lap, pass after pass.
Reddick was in last place after the crash in Stage 2. They were 12 points out of the playoffs and needed about 15 points to have a chance. Then, after getting his car back and showing confidence in Stage 3, Reddick salvaged his season by finishing 11th, edging out Joey Logano in the points. The race began with a pit stop at the end of Stage 3, where crew chief Billy Scott made several adjustments to get the car back to the Dynamo for Stage 1, Reddick said after the race. Then Reddick, one of the best road racers on the circuit, took over.
“Do you think I can surprise you like that?” When asked, Reddick said, “Even a pit stop?” “At one point we passed enough cars and had enough time to catch the last ones,” Reddick said. “Then 22 (Logano) started losing ground. But when I was in the same group, I thought, “Okay, if I’m efficient here, I can catch everyone quickly and catch up with the next group.” “But I passed. “We avoided and overcame disaster.”
There were several moments that culminated in this iconic moment. He won stage 1 and did it without much fuss, which was very important for the math. His 80-95 helped him break into the top 20, beating out many players, including playoff driver Alex Bowman. Bowman was like many other drivers on Sunday. He couldn’t resist a confident Reddick with an improved car. Then we put the nail in the coffin. 23XI Racing co-owners Denny Hamlin and Reddick Jordan with 10 laps remaining. Ball got the seventh and, barring a disastrous finish that never came, secured his place in the eighth round.
After the race, Hamlin approached Reddick with a smile and gave him a message, noting how close Reddick and Hamlin had gotten to Reddick’s decisive lead. Hamlin added: “But I told him I was proud of his riding. Overtaking is difficult in a normal road race, but his car is not optimal (after the accident), so he may be able to overtake. “It’s impressive that we can keep going like this.”
Hamlin wasn’t the only one to embrace Reddick on Pit Row. It was the same with Jordan. His crew chief and the entire team crew also high-fived Jordan and approached the driver of the 45 car. Even Reddick’s 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace stopped by to hug him, slap him on the neck and say, “Hey, you did it.” Then, before giving the NBC interview, Reddick was asked what Jordan’s hit at the same time in the pit lane meant. If he instructed his superiors in any way. Reddick smiled and shrugged. “That’s what I have to do,” Reddick said, referring to Jordan’s late-game heroics. Then he laughed. “Well, I’ll do my best.
He said: “Don’t worry, I know I don’t look like Prime Minister Jordan.” There is no one. This is unprecedented. But for a moment, Reddick may have fooled a lot of people Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Maybe even Jordan himself.
