The famous Daytona 500, the biggest race of the NASCAR Cup Series season, takes place on Sunday. And who is the owner of one of the teams? Michael Jordan, the basketball legend. But what is His Royal Airness doing in motorsport? Answer in three parts.
How and with whom did Jordan engage?
The new car from 23XI Racing, the NASCAR Cup Series team of Michael Jordan, has just been presented. It’s a red and white Toyota – a nice reference to its Chicago Bulls past – that flaunts Jordan’s iconic number 23 on the sides and hood. The former basketball player founded his team in September, buying the license from Germain Racing, before placing his mark there. Denny Hamlin, a NASCAR star, who has won the Daytona 500 three times, including the last two editions, is a minority shareholder. The latter will however drive for another franchise, Joe Gibbs Racing, as authorized by the regulations. Forty years old, however, he is thinking about his retraining and this is what prompted him to invest in 23XI Racing. Jordan needs his automotive experience.
…
The new car from 23XI Racing, the NASCAR Cup Series team of Michael Jordan, has just been presented. It’s a red and white Toyota – a nice reference to its Chicago Bulls past – that flaunts Jordan’s iconic number 23 on the sides and hood. The former basketball player founded his team in September, buying the license from Germain Racing, before placing his mark there. Denny Hamlin, a NASCAR star, who has won the Daytona 500 three times, including the last two editions, is a minority shareholder. The latter will however drive for another franchise, Joe Gibbs Racing, as authorized by the regulations. Forty years old, however, he is thinking about his retraining and this is what prompted him to invest in 23XI Racing. Jordan needs his automotive experience. DarrellBubbaWallaceJr (27) is the official pilot of the new structure. He is also the only African-American to officiate in NASCAR. However, he has yet to win a single victory in 105 races. Until last year, Wallace was part of the Richard Petty Motorsports team. He could become a shareholder in this team, but he could not resist Jordan’s offer. In addition to the social aspect of this contract of several years (see point three), it is a nice commercial coup, thanks to the attraction aroused by a monument like Jordan, but also thanks to the image of Wallace. The pilot’s personal sponsor, McDonald’s, is getting involved in the project, as are Columbia Sportswear and Dr Pepper, a beverage brand. The budget for the 2021 season was completed in no time. 18 years after his retirement, Michael Jordan’s financial empire is as impressive as his record as a player. His Jordan Brand, a subsidiary of Nike, earns him $ 130 million a year. His investment in the Charlotte Hornets, an NBA franchise, turned out to be a smoking gun: in 2010, he bought 97% of the shares for $ 175 million. The franchise is currently worth … 1.5 billion! What is less well known is that, from 2004 to 2013, MJ also owned Michael Jordan Motorsports, an active team in the AMA Pro Road Superbike Racing Championships. Jordan stayed behind the scenes, staying in his suite during the infamous Bike Week at Daytona International Speedway. One of his drivers, Jake Zemke, won two Superbike races and finished third in the 2010 championship. Jordan has always loved motorsports. His parents regularly took Jordan and his brothers to the North Carolina State Winston Cup Series events. The future Chicago Bulls player fell under the spell of NASCAR. Even during his basketball career, he regularly attended races. This is how he befriended Denny Hamlin, with whom he often played golf. Hamlin has long been a Jordan Brand Ambassador and is a subscriber to the Charlotte Hornets. During their rounds of golf, the two men often talked about setting up their own NASCAR team, but the conditions were never right. Till today. Jordan didn’t choose Darrell Bubba Wallace Jr by chance. It is a product of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program, designed to facilitate the hatching of black drivers in a traditionally white sport. Without much success, since Wallace is the only African-American pilot at the moment. In fact, in 2017, NASCAR fans did not welcome him with open arms. Despite their reluctance and a blank track record, Wallace has nonetheless become a charismatic driver. Last year he became one of the pillars of the Black Live Matter movement and the face of its discipline in the fight against racism. He notably had a BLM message affixed to his car and, before a race in Atlanta, he put on a t-shirt flanked by the inscription “I can’t breathe”, the last words of George Floyd, suffocated under the knee of a policeman. Wallace also pleaded for NASCAR to successfully ban the Confederate flag from the stands. Before a race in Alabama, a rope with a noose was discovered in his team’s garage. It is the symbol of the lynching of African-Americans in the south … The affair caused a scandal. His colleagues supported Wallace, hosting a mini-protest march before a race, but the FBI then discovered that this rope had been there for a long time and therefore had no connection with Wallace’s role in the BLM movement. Bubba did not have to think long when Jordan took an interest in him: the only black driver was going to work for the first black owner of a NASCAR team since the pioneer Wendell Scott, who drove the car of his own team. from 1961 to 1973, at a time when racism was omnipresent in the USA, even if, half a century later, it is still far from having disappeared, including in NASCAR, which remains a matter of white people. Jordan felt the time had come to start his own team, as the fight for equality was in full swing in America. During his basketball career, he has always stayed away from societal debates, but in recent years he has been heavily involved, donating millions of dollars to organizations fighting against racism. By founding his 23XI Racing, he hopes to attract black audiences to NASCAR races and offer a chance to black drivers and collaborators in America’s main automobile competition. According to Bill Lester, an African-American driver active from 1998 to 2012 in NASCAR, he will only succeed on one condition: “His team has to win. Only then will the doors open. That’s what Serena and Venus Williams accomplished in tennis or Tiger Woods in golf. ” Knowing Jordan, he will give everything to meet this sporting challenge. Among other things …
– .
