Michael Jordan’s New NASCAR Recruit Psyched for Partner’s Approach Bubba Wallace Claimed “Never Really Been Big On”

Kyle Busch’s divorce from Joe Gibbs Racing was one of the biggest events in 2022. But the veteran found a place to go when Richard Childress Racing invited the 2-time Cup Series winner to their stables. And one common link – Bubba Wallace connected all of this.

Joe Gibbs Racing decided to let Kyle Busch go as “they have other irons in the fire”. Richard Childress Racing pounced on the opportunity to welcome a serial winner to their team, but they, too, needed a vacant seat to place him.

Although Kurt Busch was to be replaced in 2024 by Tyler Reddick, the injury meant Reddick could now come in sooner. The Michael Jordan-owned team decided to buy out Reddick’s contract for 2023 with RCR.

With that saga done with, both Busch and Reddick have been acclimatizing to their new environment at RCR and 23XI, respectively. Busch had a head start owing to a lack of contractual constraints. However, Reddick had to wait a little while before he could begin his work with the team.

The little time he has got to spend with his new team, sufficiently impressed Reddick. He spoke about the (relatively) novel approach the team intends to take. Reddick said, “It’s going to be a big change — the way that they go about doing things is quite a bit different from RCR.”

He is very pumped about the future and said “It’s really exciting their approach. I think it’s the right approach.”

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NASCAR is yet to be taken over by the data fever, but Denny Hamlin trusts this approach.

Bubba Wallace didn’t trust the Denny Hamlin way

Bubba, too, had been a part of several teams before he joined 23XI Racing. All those ‘conventional’ teams had followed the traditional approach, but Hamlin and Jordan shook things up with their approach.

Other sports have been using the analytics approach for a long time. Jordan’s time in the NBA is possibly one reason for the approach taken by his team. Bubba Wallace described his difficulties warming up to the alternative approach on an episode of All The Smoke.

Wallace said, “Being a part of this team, Denny (Hamlin), who is co-owner with MJ, we race against him. He is big in the data analytics stuff, looking at film and all this stuff. I’ve never really been big on that.”

Wallace also criticized the method for “…it kind of took the art away because before it was like, ‘Man, how is Bubba driving in there, like what’s he doing?‘”. He explained how “Now all your data pops up on the screen. Well sh*t, everybody’s gonna copy what I’m doing when we’re good there.”

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Despite the reservations Bubba has for the data analytics approach, that’s where elite sports are moving. That is the future, and that is the way to go for teams that aim to win big.