On Sunday, February 13, Michael Jordan made his official debut as NASCAR team owner with 23XI Racing in the Daytona 500. This was confirmed with Denny Hamlin's tweet welcoming the partnership between the team and the financial services company MoneyLion Racing.
There had always been speculation for months about Jordan's partnership with Hamlin, though it had not yet been confirmed until now. As reported by essentiallysports.com, he announced a partnership with Hamlin and Bubba Wallace Jr. as the team's drivers, investing $150 million.
The partnership did not come as a surprise at all since it had its roots in the relationship between Jordan and Hamlin. The two have been in contact for many years, with the latter being the first NASCAR athlete to join the Jordan brand. This was confirmed in Hamlin's Instagram post, where he said:
“11 years ago I met Jordan at a then-Charlotte Bobcats game and we became fast friends.”
Meanwhile, Wallace Jr., being the only black full-time driver at NASCAR's top level, was just the perfect candidate for the partnership. The driver appeared excited about the partnership, given that he has always been a fan of the basketball legend. This was apparent in an interview with the Associated Press during a promo filming for Fox, where he said:
“When he walked in the room it was like oh wow, this is real.”
The 28-year-old has spent the last three seasons driving the iconic #43 for Richard Petty Motorsports. On Sunday, it was made official that he will drive the #23 Toyota Camry for Jordan's team. Claiming that he's raring to go out there, he said:
“It’s like their little kid out there racing, I don’t know. I’m like, you guys are nervous, I’m just over here ready to go.”
Meanwhile, Michael Jordan has said he is happy to be part of this partnership, as Denny Hamlin claimed since the 58-year-old has always been a big fan of the sport.
Fans react to McDonalds' Super Bowl commercial featuring NASCAR'S Bubba Wallace and Kanye West
McDonald released a commercial as part of their ad campaign for the Super Bowl LVI. The audience found it quite hard to comprehend since all that was there was "uhhhhhhhhhh".
Watch the ad here:
This was something that both fans of Kanye West and Bubba Wallace were not expecting and they were disappointed. One fan tweeted their dissatisfaction, tweeting:
“Sorry McDonald’s but that was a wast of time 👎👎👎and probably thousands of dollars wasted for this mediocre commercial My 8 yr old sun even said that was stupid uhhhhhhh😂😂😂😂😂”
Also Checkout : Nascar Daytona 500 Results