gettyimages-2181408214-1-1.jpg
Getty Images

Michael Jordan is arguably the best athlete of his generation. NASCAR is the No. 1 racing series in North America.

Both sides are poised for a Game 7 showdown we haven't seen before.

As playoff teams prepare for this weekend's race at Martinsville Speedway, their last shot to qualify for the sport's Championship 4, Jordan's 23XI Racing team is breathing easy. Driver Tyler Reddick has already qualified after pit strategy paired together with a brilliant last-lap pass at Homestead-Miami Speedway catapulted him past Ryan Blaney.

"I thought there was no way … Blaney was going to leave me the outside," Reddick said after the race. "He must have thought that I was just going to absolutely dive bomb it off in there to try to get around him. Once I saw him kind of shade down, I hit the gas and forgot about everything else. Came out on the other side in the lead."

Reddick was also lucky to come out the other side of one of Jordan's classic bear hugs, someone who still feels nearly twice the size and stature of the driver he employs.

"Little kid drove his ass off," Jordan said of Reddick. "I'm proud of him… he just let go. He just went for it and I'm glad. We needed it."

And with the win, Reddick has an automatic bid and a chance to earn 23XI, co-owned by Jordan and Denny Hamlin, its first NASCAR Cup title in a series dominated by legacy organizations. The teams they're fighting -- Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing -- have won 16 of the last 19 championships.  

The only two other competitors to break through during that time, Stewart-Haas Racing and Furniture Row Racing, will both be extinct as of February 2025. An inability for others to get a foothold and turn a profit in this sport is at the heart of a lawsuit Jordan has filed against NASCAR, an antitrust case in which plaintiffs 23XI and Front Row Motorsports assert NASCAR is a monopoly.

The outcome has the ability to reshape the landscape of the sport and how it does business. It's also created an awkward reality. Should Hamlin, who drives for JGR, qualify for the title race at Martinsville this weekend, that means a 50% chance this year's champion will be, at least indirectly, suing the very sport he just mastered.

Could you imagine the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the World Series while suing MLB, complaining their entire competitive model is invalid? That's what Reddick's win has opened NASCAR up to while wary eyes wonder if 23XI, Jordan and Hamlin can pull this off with a very public, obvious distraction.

"[Jordan's] dedicated a lot of his time, his efforts, his money into elevating 23XI to where it is right now," Reddick said. "He's fully committed to this team, our organization.

"To be able to reward him with the days like we had [at Homestead], it's a true honor. It was really cool to see how happy he was. We're all very happy about it."

Now comes the hard part.

Traffic Report

Green: Christopher Bell. Arguably this playoff's most consistent driver, Bell built a 22-point cushion on the cut line at Homestead with his third consecutive top-five finish (fourth). Through eight postseason races in 2024, Bell has failed to win but posted 280 laps led, two poles and only one finish lower than seventh.

Yellow: Chase Elliott. NASCAR's perennial Most Popular Driver had his best race in ages at Homestead, leading a season-high 81 laps and coming home fifth for the second time in three weeks. Problem is, it's too little, too late after a Las Vegas wrecked put him in a must-win situation to make the championship entering Martinsville.

Red: Ty Gibbs. Things are breaking the wrong direction during a sophomore season Gibbs was expected to win. A first-round playoff knockout, he's now got three straight finishes outside the top 30 for the first time all season while tumbling to 13th in the postseason standings.

Speeding Ticket: NASCAR. Homestead remains the sport's best intermediate track, delivering fantastic finishes year after year. It's bad enough the oval was removed as the championship finale race in favor of less-competitive Phoenix Raceway.

But to take it out of the playoffs altogether in 2025? (The lone Cup race here will be run in March). To replace it with… New Hampshire Motor Speedway? Or World Wide Technology Raceway? Those two events combined had fewer lead changes (22) than the record-setting 33 we saw for HMS in Sunday's event.   

Oops!

Kyle Larson's title bid all year has been hampered by getting a little too aggressive on the racetrack. Sunday's mistake while racing for the lead with Ryan Blaney may be what ultimately costs him a shot at advancing.

The spin ruined what had been an improbable comeback for Larson, slicing through the field after an early flat tire in Stage 1.

"You're making split-second decisions," Larson said, absolving the lapped car he passed, Austin Dillon, of any role in the crash. "Austin (Dillon) did nothing wrong. I was just hoping that he would see me coming as the No. 12 got to his inside, and maybe he'd run a lane off the wall just to give me some clean air.

"He continued to run his line. I had a little bit of a hole and I was trying to shoot the gap to get in front of the No. 3 and get to the wall quickly to either hopefully stay on the outside of the No. 12 or build a run to have a shot at him in (turns) one and two. But yeah, it just didn't work out."

Now, Larson heads to a track in Martinsville that's one of the weaker ones on his resume. He has just one win in 19 career starts, although four of his five career top-five finishes there have come since moving over to Hendrick Motorsports in 2021.