Basketball legend Michael Jordan is no doubt serious about the business of his NASCAR outfit. Serving his 3rd year as the team co-owner of 23XI Racing, Jordan has been extremely active in the racing world. Beginning from picking out Basketball-inspired liveries for his cars to providing words of advice to his crew, he has been the perfect benefactor a sportsperson could ask for. Unfortunately, all his efforts do not seem to be enough.

Despite putting in the extra hours and efforts towards getting the results of his investment into stock car racing, Jordan’s hopes of a championship hang by a thread after the race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Michael Jordan’s sole playoff driver Reddick fails to create the expected impact at Las Vegas

Going into the first race of the Round of 8, the No. 45 car of Tyler Reddick was perhaps the best looking on the grid. Paying homage to the Jordan Retro 8 sneakers, it stole all the eyes on the 1.5-mile track. But that was the only aspect of Sunday that fell in line with expectations. Judging from the speed of the Toyotas this year and the history of Reddick at the track, he was expected to put out a much better display than the one that led him to a P8 finish. In the driver’s words that came before the race, “When you look at our speed and what we are really good at, our ceiling is there. It’s just a matter of putting it together on the racetrack, one weekend at a time. If you do everything right, you can get there.”

Unfortunately, the No. 45 team did not do everything right on Sunday. The driver himself wasn’t very thrilled with the results, but his blame was on the performance of the car Jordan had given him. He said after the race, as reported by Fox Sports, “In practice, that thing was a rocket ship, but it was a handful at the same time and just today, for whatever reason, I just felt like it was great at moments and at others, it felt like I was getting ready to wreck.”

Going to Miami and Martinsville, the No. 45 team will face a very steep climb. The corner that 23XI Racing finds itself in right now is a place that even Jordan and his influence might not be able to help with.

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The No. 45 team faces a steep climb as Jordan’s efforts run the risk of going waste

23XI Racing co-owner and Jordan’s partner, Denny Hamlin had recently talked to NBC about how the basketball star’s increased influence in the 23XI garage was proving to be a boon. Hamlin had talked about the importance of having a successful figure in the vicinity and the impact that he created. Reminiscing over the involvement of his partner, the Joe Gibbs Racing star said, “I think he’s brought some very good intel into our meetings on mindset, on how do we get better individually as a team. He’s obviously been a part of team sports forever. He’s, at times, heard things in meetings where he’s like, ‘I don’t like that. We need to be more self-reflective on what we need to do better.’ That goes such a long way with our team.”

Echoing the same, Reddick had told the media earlier about the positivity that spread in the 23XI garage. He’d talked about how all the crews functioned as one unit. But sadly, the team’s efforts could go to waste if they continue to make mistakes at Miami and Martinsville. The No. 45 driver is currently 15 points below the cutoff line. For now, Jordan can only hope that the driver conjures some fresh spells over the next two weeks and books a seat in the Championship 4.

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