Tyler Reddick reveals message from Michael Jordan after winning Daytona 500

Winning the Daytona 500 is special no matter the situation. Doing it as a driver for Michael Jordan‘s race team is another story, and that’s what Tyler Reddick experienced on Sunday.

Reddick, driver of the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing, took the checkered flag in the 68th running of the Great American Race. Jordan, the six-time NBA champion, knows a thing or two about coming up in the clutch. That is precisely the word he used to describe Reddick’s effort at Daytona.

“He was just proud to be staying in the hunt the entire race. He used the word clutch, I mean, it really was,” Reddick said Tuesday on ESPN‘s Get Up.

Reddick was indeed clutch at Daytona. Reddick ran fourth down the backstretch on the final lap, with 23XI teammate Riley Herbst behind him. Reddick got a run coming into Turn 3 and it appeared as if Zane Smith backed off race leader Chase Elliott to gain some momentum. Rather than push Smith, Reddick shot to the outside before crossing over to the bottom down the frontstretch, passing Elliott to steal the victory, snapping a 38-race winless streak.

Michael Jordan, 23XI always saw the talent in Tyler Reddick

After going winless in 2025, Reddick is now a Daytona 500 champion. The 30-year-old has come a long way since his messy exit from Richard Childress Racing, and he’s become one of the Cup Series’ best with 23XI. Jordan and fellow co-owner Denny Hamlin always believed in him, a surreal feeling for Reddick.

“To do it for someone like Michael Jordan, for myself, is a dream come true,” Reddick said. “But to do it for someone like Michael, who believes like he does in my driving ability… You know, three or four years when I was working on where am I gonna go in the future, to have someone like Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin say, ‘You’re the guy we want more than anyone else in the field to drive our No. 45 car.’

“I mean, to have someone like the driver Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan, who has accomplished everything that he has in his career and his life… to have those words said about you by those two people is stuff you never dream to become reality. So, to have this opportunity to deliver in the clutch moment to get the victory after coming up one spot short a year ago, it’s just been a wild couple of days.”