Raise your hand if you had Michael Jordan becoming the face of NASCAR.
Not sure about the shelf life of this new role for the basketball god and global brand, but for now, he’s here to preach the stock-car sermon, and if there’s any hesitation among the sport’s marketeers, they should take a deep breath and embrace the opportunity.
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Tyler Reddick won the Daytona 500 and will get his due. But in the afterglow of the 68th Daytona 500, he’ll have a co-star on the highlight reels.
NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France was among those in Victory Lane congratulating Michael Jordan.
“Well, it’s big for the sport,” said Denny Hamlin, who splits his duties as one of Jordan’s two co-owners and a future Hall of Fame racer. “He’s the most popular athlete in the world; I don’t think there’s any disputing that. And he loves the sport.”
Just two months ago, Jordan was part of NASCAR’s worst nightmare. He wasn’t just the co-owner of one of the two teams suing NASCAR in antitrust court, but basically the face of the plaintiffs.
Parties settled before the case could go to jury, and while it was largely assumed Jordan’s side came out on the better side of the settlement, details remain out of public view.
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There was no hiding Sunday’s winners — Tyler Reddick, obviously, but also his 23XI race team and the most public of faces associated with the team.
“I can’t even believe it,” Jordan said after bear-hugging Reddick and helping lift the Harley J. Earl Trophy. “You never know how these races are gonna end. You just try to survive.”
That’s not just a casual fan talking, by the way. This isn’t a guy parachuting in as an investor.
Michael Jordan knows his NASCAR, and that’s a big reason no one at HQ should feel the least bit sheepish about taking advantage of this. His pre-race chat on Fox, when asked about his lifelong history with the Daytona 500, made the point.
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“It was a group event,” he said of his childhood in Wilmington, N.C. “The family sat there and we watched the race. Four hours, five hours, six hours, didn’t matter. We were gonna watch the race.
“For me to have an opportunity to continue to come back and be a part of this kinda reminds me of being back home in North Carolina and being able to connect with the family and watch the race.”
That’s the type of stuff NASCAR would, should and could run with. And they will. Maybe because all the others will and they have little choice, but frankly it seems as if it’ll happily be a joint venture. And here’s why.
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Jim France’s appearance in Victory Lane, congratulating everyone, including Michael Jordan, green-lights that effort. No one can recall Jim being in Victory Lane after a Daytona 500 — maybe he’s been there, maybe not. But he was there Sunday.
And we go back to Jordan’s pre-race Fox chatter, and also consider Hamlin’s post-race talk about a get-together this week between his group and some NASCAR higher-ups. Everything went well, it seems.
First, from Hamlin: “It seems like there’s more of a collaborative pull of the rope. It seems like we’re all willing to make the changes to make this sport grow. We have to work really hard at it, but I think we’re gonna get there.”
And Jordan, regarding the lesson learned from all: “Communication. We both needed to have a conversation about change and how we can grow this sport. Unfortunately, we had to go through what we had to go through.
“I think, coming out of that, we have a much better appreciation of each other. I think it opens up conversations amongst each other to continue to grow the game.”
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And at the end, this from Jordan — what sounds like a throw-away line that might actually be prophetic.
“I think everybody’s going to be OK.”
— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR, Michael Jordan now on same page after Daytona 500 win
