Ever wondered what the 23 in the name 23XI means? For those who don’t know, 23 was the jersey number of Michael Jordan in the Chicago Bulls, and the XI stands for Denny Hamlin‘s number 11 Joe Gibbs Racing car. Despite Michael Jordan‘s jersey number being unmistakably woven into the mere nomenclature of his Cup series team’s name, the NBA legend has not been quite present during the seasonal races of the current season. But not anymore.

Execution has been a major problem for the two 23XI racing teams since June and July. Where Tyler Reddick had a 5-race stretch finishing P27th or worse, Bubba Wallace, finished no better than P15. However, both of them qualified for the playoffs this year. And since then, Michael Jordan has been seen cheering his team with his very conspicuous presence. That seems to have had a positive impact on the McDonald-sponsored team.

Michael Jordan’s 23XI partner shed light on the influence of the ‘Jumpman’

Denny Hamlin had previously admitted that Michael Jordan had become more involved in the marketing affairs of the team. Recently, since selling off his majority stake in the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, MJ has been investing more time in team meetings as well. And that seems to be paying off.

According to NBC Sports, Denny Hamlin explained that Michael Jordan has brought some really good information and intel to the team. Jordan has started pointing out the facts that he liked or disliked about his team’s operations, which, according to Hamlin, goes a long way.

“He is getting involved in more meetings,” Denny Hamlin admitted. “He’s listening 99% of the time, but when he hears something he doesn’t necessarily like … as far as self-reflection is concerned, he’ll point that out. For every one finger pointing (at someone), there are three pointing back at you. So you always need to think about what you need to do better and that’s great advice to live by,” he added.

However, Tyler Reddick felt like this involvement could have happened way earlier and said, “Right as we got into the heat of this thing, we pulled it together. It would have been good to correct it earlier, but when the playoffs came around, we locked in.”

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Nevertheless, the fans seem to be quite happy with Michael Jordan’s involvement in his Cup series team. And they did not hold back, showering him with praise.

Fans were happy to see Michael Jordan at Homestead-Miami

The man himself was seen in a black tee, wearing a pair of black shades, leaning against Bubba Wallace’s Toyota parked on the pit road, moments after the 4EVER 400 was done and dusted. Uploading a picture of the same on Twitter, The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck wrote, “It’s commonplace at this point, but MJ was on pit road again after the race. Not sure if he’s missed a single playoff race this year.”

Within seconds, comments started pouring in. Someone said, “Great to see Micheal being present to support his teams. He has done a lot more and been more present than I thought he would be.”

While another wrote, “I don’t think he’s missed a race since he sold his stake of the hornets”

A fan wrote, “Here I thought that fans were convinced he would be an absentee owner…”

But that wasn’t true after all. Nobody can call him an ‘absentee owner’ anymore. On that note, a 23XI supporter typed, “Nobody can ever say he wasn’t fully invested in his teams!”

Read more: Tyler Reddick Admits Michael Jordan Wasn’t “Expecting a Lot” From Him, But It Was a Ploy for the Best

While one said, “It’s great to see. So many big names come in as owners and are never seen. You can tell he’s involved and wants success and relationships”

“The man supports his investments. 👍🏼” added another.

What do you think about MJ’s recent involvement in his team? Do you think the team could have been in a better position in the postseason had Michael Jordan intervened earlier? A little speculation doesn’t hurt.