It all came down to this moment. After battling through 28 races in the regular season, Bubba Wallace fell to his final hope—the Southern 500 race. Last weekend, Harrison Burton pushed down Wallace’s playoff chances further by adding to the championship contenders’ list. So the 23XI Racing driver had to contend with a fierce rival in similar dire straits, and Michael Jordan was on the edge.

Michael Jordan admits to a nail-biter feeling

Winning six NBA championships for the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan knows what it takes to be on the front row. And that is what he ardently wants for his 23XI drivers, especially Bubba Wallace. Going into Darlington, the No. 23 Toyota driver was 21 points behind the playoff cutline. And all throughout the Southern 500, he lingered around the bubble, exchanging points with Chris Buescher constantly. Yet, despite Wallace’s good runs previously—he owns four top-ten finishes—his team owner was nervous.

Michael Jordan himself came down to the pit lane in a sweating mess and sat there as he professed faith in Wallace’s run. Yet his rival offered a tight spot—Chris Buescher is a three-time Darlington winner. “I trust him. I think they had a good game plan. I think Bubba has done an unbelievable job thus far…sure, I’d like to go. I mean, Buescher’s tough, you know. He likes this track, he did well last time, last year. I mean, we’re in sight of the range. So he’s got to do his job, he’s got to go out and race.” 

Jittery feelings held Michael Jordan in a tight grip as he confessed further about his tensions for both Wallace and Tyler Reddick. “I’m absolutely terrified right now, ’cause I want him to do well obviously. And Tyler too, Tyler’s a little sick right now. He’s struggling, trying to get through it. That’s what NASCAR is all about, I enjoy it. I don’t have basketball anymore, but this can replace it very easily. I’m excited for today.”

But unfortunately, Michael Jordan’s and Bubba Wallace’s dreams now lay shattered. Chase Briscoe won the race after a spectacular last-lap competition with Kyle Busch. On the other hand, Tyler Reddick clinched the regular season championship. And Jordan faced eerily similar circumstances as Reddick back in 1997.

Jordan battled illness too

A racer gets a lot of inspiration from their team owner. However, if this inspiration stretches into physical health mishaps, then it is indeed a problem. For the Southern 500 race, Tyler Reddick wore colors honoring his team owner, Michael Jordan. However, stomach troubles attacked him mid-race, and he still put up a good fight to cross the finish line in 10th place. Reddick also managed to beat Kyle Larson to win the regular season championship. Surprisingly, this situation resembled Jordan’s dilemma 27 years ago.

In 1997, Michael Jordan fought food poisoning in the NBA finals against the Utah Jazz. Despite his problem, Jordan achieved a stunning 38 points to give the Chicago Bulls the lead. The cause behind his mishap, though, was pizza, as his trainer Tim Grover revealed. “And I’m just… I take the pizza, and I tell them, I said, ‘I got a bad feeling about this.’ Out of everybody in the room, he was the only one that ate. Nobody else… then 2 o’clock in the morning, I get a call to my room.” Jordan faced the consequences, as he confessed: “Probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. I almost played myself into passing out just to win a basketball game.”

Like team owner, like driver. In the end, we are just happy that Tyler Reddick persisted till the end and won his very first regular-season championship. Now only the Cup Series trophy is left.