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MJ’s NASCAR Squad Wins Again

Team 23XI, which the basketball legend co-owns, is dominating the racetrack this season.

The wins jkeep coming for Michael Jordan in NASCAR.

Tyler Reddick, the driver of Jordan’s Team 23XI’s No. 45 Toyota Camry, took the checkered flag in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. The win is Reddick’s fourth since he took the Daytona 500 back on Feb. 15. That was the start of a record-setting pace for Reddick and Team 23XI, which would go on to win three straight races to begin this year’s NASCAR Cup Series.

Sunday’s race may have been the most dramatic yet. Redding won with what was called a dominant performance by commentators, but it wasn’t dominant without issue. His car had electrical problems throughout most of the race, an issue so bad that he had to pit the car on the first lap so his crew could replace the battery.


Adding to Reddick's difficult day at the office was the heat. Air temperatures in Darlington soared as high as 90 degrees on Sunday, exacerbating the 100+ degree temperatures typically recorded inside a NASCAR cockpit. On a normal day, that might have been fine, since drivers wear special equipment to help them keep cool. But the No. 45 car’s electrical problems forced Reddick to shut down one of the main ways drivers typically get a reprieve from the extreme heat: his cool shirt.

Worn under the flame-retardant suit all NASCAR drivers wear, the cool shirt uses electricity from the car to power a system that pushes cooled water through tubes to help regulate body temperature. But after coming from behind late in the race and with a chance to win, Reddick was forced to choose between trying to win in dangerous heat or pitting again, nearly guaranteeing a loss. He chose to go for it, and it paid off. No, it literally paid off. Yesterday’s race purse, per Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass, was more than $11.2 million.


Next up for Jordan and Reddick: the Cook Out 400 next Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Va.

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