Denny Hamlin on Michael Jordan in Victory Lane: ‘You can’t downplay it’

We will never be able to talk about this Talladega race without talking about Michael Jordan celebrating in Victory Lane. Denny Hamlin was there with his 23XI Racing co-owner in what made for a unique moment in NASCAR.

Tyler Reddick delivered the first win of the season and the fifth win all-time for 23XI Racing. He now has three wins since joining the organization in 2023. He has been impressive this season, but his win at Talladega might be his most memorable performance.

As co-owner, Denny Hamlin knew how much it meant to MJ to get that win while at the track. It made for a fun celebration for everyone involved.

Even though he wrecked out of the race, Hamlin was more than happy to see his driver get the win. Even more happy to see Michael Jordan celebrating with the team.

“Yeah such a, again, my emotions went from wanting to get the hell out of there to suddenly being happy and excited,” Hamlin explained on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “I still find myself hard because I’m such a tough competitor, getting away from the emotion of, ‘Damn, my day just sucked.’ Oddly enough when my cars had won I had a pretty good day myself. Usually, I’m in the top-5 or battling for the win as well, so it’s not a complete loss. But today was like, ‘Oh my god we finished like last.’ I left there with no points and then all of a sudden my brain has to shift to, ‘Oh I need to be excited now.’ And I was, but I really was once I got to Victory Lane, right?

“When you see how [excited] all the crew guys were, the team members were, Michael [Jordan] how excited he was. It’s a big deal, man. You can’t downplay it in kind of way I’m sure they got Michael highlights going all over the damn place on social media. Certainly, Jared, you got the photo op of us kind of embracing there in Victory Lane. It’s his first time that he got to experience that.”

Prior to the win, Denny Hamlin used to joke about Michael Jordan being bad luck at the track. Now, I feel like MJ is going to show up a lot more.

“He’s no longer bad luck, that’s for sure. We had some good fortune today,” Hamlin said.

Tyler Reddick delivered one of the more important wins in 23XI’s early history. Michael Jordan was there, holding Reddick’s son Beau, everyone going wild – you couldn’t have written it any better.