A contentious antitrust lawsuit from two teams last October, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, eventually ended with NASCAR settling and making significant concessions to all teams. It seems like 23XI has carried its courtroom success to the race track. Tyler Reddick won the team’s first Daytona 500 last week. The 30-year-old put his No. 45 Toyota Camry back in victory lane yesterday in Atlanta. It’s the first time that a driver has won back-to-back in the opening NASCAR Cup Series round since 2009. The team, co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, can seemingly do no wrong.
While the unpredictable nature of Daytona and Atlanta as drafting tracks makes it impossible to know if 23XI’s winning form will continue across the entire season, Reddick is undeniably on fire. In the Great American Race, he found himself at the front of the field and delivered in the clutch. With help from his rookie teammate Riley Herbst, Reddick blasted past Chase Elliott and Zane Smith to win the 500-mile classic on the last lap. It was the only lap that the No. 45 led all day. According to ESPN, Jordan said in victory lane, “It feels like I won a championship, but until I get my ring, I won’t even know.”
Before a speck of dust could fall on the shiny new trophy, two 23XI cars were at the front of the field during another Cup Series race. Bubba Wallace was leading the Autotrader 400 as the green flag waved for overtime in Atlanta. Reddick took the restart in third right behind the No. 23. A failed block down the backstretch immediately took Wallace out of contention. Reddick didn’t hesitate to jockey his way clear of Carson Hocevar beside him and take the lead going into the final lap. He ended up taking the checkered flag unopposed to seal the back-to-back victory, all without a right-front fender.
23XI’s courtroom victory only makes the actual trophies even better
It seems hard to believe that last year, there was a chance 23XI might have had to qualify just to make the field at Daytona. NASCAR’s conflict with its teams reached a boiling point last October when 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsport filed an antitrust lawsuit against the stock car racing body. Both teams refused to sign a new charter agreement with NASCAR. The charter system is the sanctioning body’s version of the franchise model used by North America’s stick-and-ball league, except that it was temporary and didn’t guarantee a fixed percentage of revenue. While charters are transferable, NASCAR could revoke them or renegotiate terms after the contract expires.
This was the predicament both 23XI and Front Row found themselves in after refusing the new terms and suing NASCAR over its monopolistic practices. Both teams were allowed to contest the rest ofthe 2025 season as uncharted entries. At trial, it came out that NASCAR executives refused to negotiate and pressured other team owners to sign the new charter deal. Disparaging text messages from NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps also came to light, where he called team owner Richard Childress “a stupid redneck who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR.”
Both sides eventually settled in December, with NASCAR yielding on two crucial demands for all teams: permanent charters to compete and a greater share of revenue. Phelps resigned from his position in January. He was seeking to leave stock car racing to become the PGA Tour’s next commissioner, but the trial’s revelations derailed his hopes. The trial certainly hurt NASCAR’s reputation, but fans were elated to see the sport’s ruling France family taken down a peg for the teams’ benefit. One die-hard fan even played “Sirius” by The Alan Parsons Project, the Chicago Bulls’ intro theme, as MJ walked into the courthouse.
