Five years ago, Michael Jordan pivoted from a legendary career in basketball to investing in Nascar racing. Now, the Hall of Fame basketball icon is celebrating winning his first Daytona 500 championship as a co-owner of 23XI Racing team. The win came just days before the legend celebrated his 63rd birthday today (Feb. 17).
“I can’t even believe it,” Jordan said moments after his team’s triumph. “It was so gratifying. You never know how these races are going to end. You just try to survive. I’m ecstatic. It feels like I won the championship, but until I get the ring, I won’t even know.”
The 23XI Racing team’s 2026 win marks the second time a Black-owned racing team has won the coveted Daytona 500, NASCAR’s biggest race. As previously reported by theGrio, in 2023 Jordan extended his congratulations to fellow former NBA player Brad Daugherty, co-owner of JTG Daugherty Racing which won the 2023 Daytona 500.
“[Jordan] reached out and said, ‘Congratulations, my brother. Outstanding. I’m so proud of you,’” Daugherty recalled at the time. “And I just told him, I said, ‘You know, I am so proud of you.’”
Jordan joined the racing league in 2020 with 23XI. In 2024, however, the NBA legend joined an anti-trust lawsuit with Front Row Motorsports against the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, better known as NASCAR. In the filing, 23XI and Front Row Motorsports allege that the NASCAR’s owner and operators, the France family, “operate without transparency, have stifled competition, and control the sport.” Jordan and Front Row Motorsports ultimately won in a court settlement in December 2025
“I’ve said this from Day 1: the only way this sport is going to grow is we have to find some synergy between the two entities,” Jordan said at the time. “I think we’ve gotten to that point, unfortunately it took 16 months to get here, but I think level heads have gotten us to this point where we can actually work together and grow this sport. I am very proud about that and I think Jim feels the same.”
