"It means so much to me”: Michael Jordan isn’t hiding his excitement after tasting victory for the first time on asphalt as 23XI owner

23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan relished his maiden triumph this season at the Talladega Superspeedway after Tyler Reddick made the last lap sneak to register his and the North Carolina-based outfit's first win on the 2024 Cup Series calendar.

To date, the team co-owned by Denny Hamlin has bagged six wins from their four Cup Series seasons, but this was the first time Jordan savored the team's #45 Toyota's majestic run in person. The 188-lap dash witnessed a green flag run for two stages straight, but the final stage witnessed disastrous wrecks.

The Lap 157 crash involved seven Toyotas, from which three spiraled while the remaining completed their GEICO 500 run. Among the victims was Bubba Wallace, who bumped into the right rear of Erik Jones' ride after getting a slight push from John Hunter Nemechek's #42 Camry.

However, his teammate somewhat neutralized the pain from Wallace's loss with his breathtaking final dash to the checkered flag, which saw frontrunner Michael McDowell getting spun while blocking Brad Keselowski and paving the way for Reddick's first win in 2024.

Jordan was delighted to witness Reddick's road to victory lane live and didn't shy from expressing his excitement after adding another win to 23XI Racing's arsenal. He said (via Front Office Sports):

"We’ve been working hard, trying to get ourselves up to compete against all the top guys in this sport. But we’ve done a heck of a job just to be where we are. And for us to win a big race like this, it means so much to me."

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Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace vents his frustration for getting "trapped in somebody else’s mess"

On Lap 157, a single file of seven Toyota Camrys was drafting on the Talladega Superspeedway, led by Tyler Reddick, and followed by Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace, John Hunter Nemechek, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, and Ty Gibbs.

The high-octane machines nearly kissed each other's rear bumper, but an extra push by the #42 Toyota birthed a domino effect, starting from Wallace's #23 ramming into Jones' #43 Camry and the resulting carnage on the asphalt saw Hamlin's #11 Toyota ending with a DNF as well.

Until Wallace's 188-lap run that got reduced to 156 at Talladega, the homeboy had three top-5s, but no win to his name. So, he naturally eyed his and Jordan's first this season, but to no avail. While reflecting on his bitter outing on the home track, Wallace said (via NASCAR on Fox on X):

"We were all pushing really hard to keep our line going. We had a plan and just didn’t execute it as well as we should. Hate it for our Leidos team. Look forward to running these places and then you just get trapped in somebody else’s mess, but I hate it."