Quite the turnaround.
I think it’s safe to say that 23XI Racing is one of the most polarizing teams in NASCAR. The team co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and Cup Series superstar Denny Hamlin made waves pretty much immediately when they entered the sport in 2021 with driver Bubba Wallace behind the wheel of the 23 car.
The star power and marketing prowess of Michael Jordan allowed the team to attract some of the biggest sponsors in the sport, and led to Wallace winning his first Cup Series race that season after spending 3 years struggling with another team.
Fast forward to 2025 and the team had expanded to three cars and won 8 races entering last season, including 2 for Wallace, one with NASCAR legend Kurt Busch, and five with Tyler Reddick, who took over the #45 car in 2023 following a career-ending injury to Busch.
But the big news ahead of 2025 wasn’t the strides the team had made on the track: It was the bombshell lawsuit they, along with fellow Cup Series team Front Row Motorsports, had filed against NASCAR.
23XI Racing was unhappy with the new charter agreement that was offered by NASCAR, and while most team owners were forced to bite the bullet and accept what NASCAR was willing to give them, Michael Jordan was not most team owners: He’s one of the most powerful figures in all of sports, with a bank account that could fund an expensive lawsuit, but more importantly he’s a lifelong NASCAR fan who was willing to stand up to the sport in what he saw as an opportunity to make it better in the long run.
It was a gamble that most owners wouldn’t take, but it was ultimately one that paid off. This past December, NASCAR agreed to settle the lawsuit after an embarrassing 8-day trial, and in that settlement 23XI Racing not only got a large payout but also got the permanent charters the teams had long been asking for and an increased voice in the future of the sport.
Whether it was a result of the lawsuit or not, 2025 was a rough year on the track for Jordan’s team. Their only win of the season came in July when Bubba Wallace took the checkered flag at the Brickyard 400, and while both Reddick and Wallace made the playoffs, neither of them made it past the second round.
(The team also fields the #35 car of Riley Herbst, but that’s a different story entirely…)
Well with the elephant of the lawsuit out of the room, all eyes were on 23XI going into the 2026 Cup Series season to see whether they would be able to back up their success in the courtroom with their performance on the track.
And through two races, it’s safe to say they’re one of the best teams in the NASCAR Cup Series right now.
Tyler Reddick opened the 2026 season with a win in the Daytona 500, and followed it up with an impressive victory yesterday at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) in a car that was missing its right front fender.
But it’s not just Reddick who’s looked dominant: Bubba Wallace led 40 laps in the Daytona 500 and won the second stage of the race before finishing 10th, and yesterday in Atlanta he led 46 laps and appeared to be headed towards a win before getting shuffled back on a late race restart to finish 8th.
Right now, Reddick (obviously) leads the point standings, but as a result of his two strong runs, Bubba is currently sitting firmly in second place, ahead of Chase Elliott in 3rd and Carson Hocevar, of all people, in 4th.
And I know it’s early in the season, and we’ve only had two races at drafting-style tracks, where 23XI has historically been strong. Next week the Cup Series heads to the Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas, and road courses haven’t been great for Bubba so far in his career.
But where did Tyler Reddick get his first win in the Cup Series? It was on a road course, back in 2022 at Road America while driving for Richard Childress Racing. And his first win with 23XI Racing was at…yep, you guessed it: COTA, where the series is headed this weekend.
It will be interesting to see whether 23XI can keep up their dominating performances when the Cup Series heads to Phoenix, Las Vegas and Darlington next month.
But right now, they’re not only undefeated in 2026: They easily look like the best team in the NASCAR Cup Series right now – in the courtroom and at the race track.
