Tyler Reddick is clearing the air after social media made something out of nothing. After the driver of the No. 45 car for the 23XI Racing team won the Daytona 500, a raucous celebration ensued (as it should). It’s easily the biggest wins of Reddick’s career… which makes it that much more unfortunate that the whole thing has been overshadowed by a video that focused in on Michael Jordan – the owner of the 23XI race team – and Reddick’s six-year-old son, Beau.
If you’ve been on the internet in the past couple of days, you’ve likely seen the video of the basketball legend pulling at Beau’s shirt and shorts while everyone associated with the No. 45 car partied in victory lane.
Granted… it does come off as a bit odd without context, which is why the internet ran with it and started making accusations towards Michael Jordan:
Some said that Jordan was trying to help get ice cubes out of the back of Beau’s shirt. Others said that MJ was simply freeing some confetti that got stuck to Reddick’s son’s shirt. The worst of the worst condemned the 23XI team owner’s behavior, calling it creepy and uncalled for.
What’s made matters worse is that neither Reddick nor Jordan had addressed the situation since in happened (probably because they thought it would silly to do so). That is until the NASCAR driver was asked about the viral video when he sat down with Stephen A. Smith on The Stephen A. Smith Show.
The sports analyst spend a majority of the time talking about the Daytona 500 victory, and how much it meant to both Reddick and Jordan (it’s also 23XI Racing’s biggest win thus far). Once they had discussed the race itself for well over 10 minutes, Smith finally asked if Reddick had anything to say about what played out in victory lane between Jordan and his son.
Here’s what the NASCAR driver had to say:
“From my perspective, I’ve gotten to know Michael and his family very well over the years I’ve been here with 23XI. I don’t see what other people see when it comes to this. For me, it’s a huge moment. This is the biggest moment of my career.
It’s a huge moment for my family and for his family, and I just put that off to the side and think about the look on (Michael Jordan’s wife) Yvette’s face and the whole family and his whole group when they got to victory lane too, and just how happy everybody was celebrating together. So, that’s where I’m at with it.”
And that right there should put all of this outrage to rest.
Reddick has been with 23XI Racing for over three years, and clearly he’s been around Michael Jordan enough to be a good judge of his character. Social media simply blew something out of proportion (can you believe that?), and now a Daytona 500 winner is having to put out a fire that shouldn’t have ever been there in the first place.
You can hear more from Reddick in interview from The Stephen A. Smith Show below:
