Sports
What Michael Jordan is like as a NASCAR boss, according to his star driver
Michael Jordan bestowed the honor of driving his NASCAR team’s signature car, one that bears his own number 23, to Bubba Wallace for the last three years.
After joining Jordan in 2021, Wallace earned his first career win at Talladega Superspeedway and earned three top 5 and three top 10 finishes in just his first year as part of Jordan’s team 23XI Racing. He has gone on to become one of the sport’s most famous and polarizing figures and has carved a unique spot for himself in its history as the highest-finishing Black driver in the Daytona 500.
Now, he is also a new father. Wallace welcomed his son, Becks Hayden, with his wife Amanda on Sept. 29.
As a first time father, Wallace said Jordan is checking on him to make sure he is getting enough sleep.
“He just keeps asking if I’m getting enough sleep, and surprisingly enough, we are getting sleep. Becks sleeps pretty good, most nights,” Wallace told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 Toyota Genuine Parts/Mobil 1 Toyota, waits on the grid during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sept. 20, 2024 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
For Wallace, it is one of the more empathetic ways his NBA Hall of Famer NASCAR boss manages his top talent. On the other side, however, working for Jordan comes with a lot of verbal insults.
“He’s competitive,” Wallace said of Jordan as a boss. “He’s a lot of fun, he’s a guy that you can take jabs at, and he’ll dish it right back, so you have to have thick skin. That’s how I was brought up and raised, and trash talk is half the game, and he’s probably one of the best to do it.”
During his NBA career, Jordan developed a reputation as one of the most belligerent and unfiltered trash talkers in the entire game, and it did not stop with opponents. Jordan had a reputation of absolutely verbally obliterating his own teammates.
In the famous ESPN docuseries “The Last Dance,” the former Bulls star and his teammates recounted stories of Jordan bullying his own younger teammates.
Jordan justified his treatment of these younger teammates in the series as a means to win.
“When people see this, they might say ‘well he wasn’t really a nice guy, he might have been a tyrant!’ Well that’s you, because you never won anything,” Jordan said in the docuseries. “I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of that as well.”
WHY NASCAR STAR BUBBA WALLACE ISN’T MAKING POLITICAL STATEMENTS THIS YEAR AFTER BRASHING TRUMP IN 2020
Michael Jordan, left, talks with teammate Isiah Thomas during the NBA All Star Game played on Feb. 9, 1992 at the Orlando Arena in Orlando, Florida. (Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
One of Jordan’s other drivers has even said the NBA legend told him he was “terrible” at his sport.
Fellow 23XI driver Tyler Reddick said in an interview on Fox Sports’ “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour,” in September that Jordan berated him while the team was at the Dayton 500 in 2023.
“He [Jordan] turned to me and said, ‘Man, you don’t have any room to talk. You’re terrible at speedway racing.’ He just kind of took a shot at me, and I wasn’t expecting it,” Reddick said. “When MJ calls you out about not being very good at it, it’s easy to find motivation to get better.”
Wallace, as a part of Jordan’s team that is trying to compete to win in the competitive landscape of NASCAR, has bought into that method. Jordan, as a former transcendent athlete, has offered personal and professional advice to Wallace, and they go out of their way to compare their respective situations to each other for strategic means.
However, Wallace questions Jordan’s actual knowledge of NASCAR as a sport.
“What it was like for him coming through the league, and try to compare similarities to what it’s like here. And then I just got to school him on his racing knowledge, because he thinks he knows a lot, but there’s a lot to be learned in this sport for sure,” Wallace said.
For Wallace, this relationship has not extended too far outside the racetrack, yet. Wallace says he has not even golfed with Jordan in the three years since they started working together.
Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 23XI Racing McDonald’s Toyota, drives during the NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Circuit on July 7, 2024 in Chicago. (Ben Hsu/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“We like to talk about racing,” Wallace said of his interactions with Jordan.
Wallace said he has not engaged in any competitive activity that includes stakes of any kind with the NBA legend.
Jordan had a reputation as a notorious gambler during and after his basketball career. It has even been reported through multiple accounts that Jordan would even bet with his teammates on the outcome of pre-recorded interactive races that were played on the jumbotron at the Bulls’ home arena during games.
Wallace does not seem to know anything about that side of his boss.
What Wallace does know is that Jordan is a great guy to talk about basketball with. When they are at the team facility, one NBA team gets priority in getting played on TV, that being Jordan’s Charlotte Hornets, a team he previously owned but sold in August 2023.
“With him being the owner for a while, the Hornets game was always playing at the racetrack,” Wallace said.
Jordan purchased the Charlotte-based franchise in 2010 for $275 million. Jordan made a healthy profit when he finally sold the team last year, in a $3 billion sale to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall, and he even stayed on as a minority owner.
However, in 13 seasons under his leadership, the team went 423-600, made just three playoff appearances and did not win a single series. During the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, the then-Bobcats went 7-59, which is the worst record in NBA history.
Now, 23XI racing is the biggest sports team Jordan owns in the U.S. The pressure is on Wallace to make sure it does not end up like the Hornets.
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Napoleon Solo took home the 2026 Preakness Stakes on Saturday, the 151st running of the race.
The favorite in Taj Mahal, the 1 horse, was in the lead from the start until the final turn until Napoleon Solo made his move on the outside and took the lead at the top of the stretch. As Taj Mahal fell off, Iron Honor, the 9 horse, snuck up, but the effort ultimately was not enough.
Napoleon Solo opened at 8-1 and closed at 7-1. Iron Honor, at 8-1, finished second, with Chip Honcho fishing third after closing at 11-1. Ocelli, one of just three horses to run both the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago and Saturday’s Preakness, finished fourth at 8-1.
A Preakness branded starting gate is seen on track prior to the 151st Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park on May 16, 2026 in Laurel, Maryland. For the first and only time, Laurel Park is hosting the Preakness Stakes which is the second race of the Triple Crown jewel due to the traditional home of the race of the Pimlico Race Course undergoing complete renovations. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
A $1 exacta paid out $53.60, while a $1 trifecta brought in $597.10. But someone out there is very lucky, as a $1 superhighfive – picking the top-five finishers in order – paid out $12,015.70.
Even moreso, a 20-cent Pick 6 – picking the winners of the six consecutive races, with the final being the Preakness, paid out $33,842.34.
The race was run without the Kentucky Derby winner for the second year in a row. After Sovereignty did not run the Preakness last year – and wound up winning the Belmont Stakes – the training team of Golden Tempo opted to skip the Maryland race.
From 1960 to 2018, only three Derby winners did not run in the Preakness. Three Derby winners have skipped the Preakness in the last five years, and for the sixth time in eight years, for various reasons, the Triple Crown had already been impossible to accomplish by the time the Preakness even rolled around.
“I understand that fans of the sport or fans of the Triple Crown are disappointed, but the horse is not a machine,” Golden Tempo’s trainer, Cherie DeVaux, told Fox News Digital earlier this week.
Paco Lopez, right, atop Napoleon Solo, edges out Iron Honor, ridden by Flavien Prat, to win the 151st running of the Preakness Stakes horse race, Friday, May 15, 2026, at Laurel Park in Laurel, Maryland. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
CHERIE DEVAUX REFLECTS ON MAKING KENTUCKY DERBY HISTORY AS FIRST FEMALE TRAINER TO WIN THE RACE
Only three horses from two weeks ago – Ocelli, Robusta, and Incredibolt, were back at the Preakness. Corona de Oro, the 11 horse on Saturday, was scratched well ahead of the Derby, and Great White, who reared up and fell on his back after becoming startled shortly before entering the Derby gate, took the 13 post on Saturday.
The Preakness went off roughly 24 hours after a horse died following the completion of his very first race.
Hit Zero, trained by Brittany Russell, came into the race as the favorite. However, he finished last in the race, which was won by another one of Russell’s horses, Bold Fact — and upon crossing the finish line, Hit Zero reportedly began coughing, dropped to his knees, then put his head down and died.
The Preakness took place at Laurel Park as Pimlico undergoes renovations. It was the first time ever that Pimlico did not host the race, moving roughly 20 miles south.
Paco Lopez, atop Napoleon Solo, wins the 151st running of the Preakness Stakes horse race, Friday, May 15, 2026, at Laurel Park in Laurel, Maryland. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
The Belmont Stakes, the final Triple Crown race, will take place on June 6. The race will return to Saratoga for a third year in a row as Belmont Park continues to be renovated.
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HIGH SCHOOL BOYS VOLLEYBALL
CITY SECTION FINALS
FRIDAY
At Birmingham
DIVISION I
#1 Taft d. #3 Cleveland, 25-23, 25-14, 25-21
DIVISION IV
#7 Maywood CES d. #4 Math & Science College Prep, 25-17, 25-17, 25-23
At Venice
DIVISION II
#4 Marquez d. #6 Narbonne, 23-25, 25-19, 29-27, 25-16
DIVISION III
#13 Birmingham d. #2 Legacy, 25-20, 17-25, 31-33, 25-21, 15-10
SATURDAY
At Birmingham
OPEN DIVISION
#3 Chatsworth d. #1 Granada Hills, 24-26, 25-21, 25-14, 25-18
DIVISION V
314 Franklin d. #13 Rancho Dominguez, 25-18, 25-19, 25-16
SOUTHERN SECTION FINALS
THURSDAY
At Home Sites
DIVISION 9
Vasquez d. Tarbut V’ Torah, 25-19, 22-25, 25-21, 19-25, 15-10
FRIDAY
At Cerritos College
DIVISION 1
#1 Mira Costa d. #3 Loyola, 25-21, 25-22, 25-22
DIVISION 4
Sunny Hills d. Royal, 24-26, 25-22, 27-25, 25-23
At Home Sites
DIVISION 5
Bishop Diego d. St. Anthony, 25-19, 25-19, 23-25, 25-23
DIVISION 8
Temescal Canyon d. West Valley, 24-26, 25-16, 25-19, 25-23
SATURDAY
At Cerritos College
DIVISION 2
Orange Lutheran d. Edison, 3-1
DIVISION 3
Windward d. St, John Bosco, 24-26, 25–21, 25-22, 25-20
DIVISION 6
Culver City d. Garden Grove, 27-25, 25-20, 19-25, 21-25, 15-9
Sports
It’s Game 7, and we have a bet locked in as the Cavaliers and legacies are on the line against the Pistons
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The NBA takes a lot of flak for having meaningless games, and I can definitely understand it, watching on a random Wednesday in January. However, the playoffs have delivered over and over to viewers and rewarded us for putting up with garbage regular-season games.
This will be the fourth Game 7 of the playoffs. Three series have been sweeps, and the other three have been six games. That shows competitive hoops. Now, how do we bet this Game 7 in the Eastern Conference?
The Cleveland Cavaliers blew it. After not winning a road game all postseason, they took Game 5 in surprising fashion. It looked like they were going to win in six games. After all, they hadn’t lost a game at home in the postseason.
Instead, Detroit came out and blitzed the Cavs, never giving them a chance to get their footing. They lost in an ugly fashion and now have to figure out a way to win a game on the road.
Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden drives to the basket against the Detroit Pistons during the second half of Game 5 in the second-round NBA playoffs in Detroit on May 13, 2026. (Duane Burleson/AP)
It isn’t just the Cavs’ fate that rests in this game. It is also the legacy of James Harden and, to a lesser extent, Donovan Mitchell.
We know that Mitchell is a very good player, but he isn’t regarded as one of the best players ever. Harden is. Unfortunately, Harden has struggled in Game 7s. He’s averaged 19.1 points, 7.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds. That’s not terrible, but looking at his shooting percentages, he is at 35.3% and 22.2% in those games. He actually is 4-4 overall in the games, but in his past three, he has scored a combined 34 points over 113 minutes.
The Detroit Pistons seem to like playing with their backs against the wall. They are a gritty team, so I suppose it makes sense.
Detroit Pistons’ Jalen Duren reacts after allowing a pass to go out of bounds in the second half of Game 4 of the second-round NBA playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland on May 11, 2026. (Sue Ogrocki/AP)
Cade Cunningham continues to deliver for the team, and he finally got some help in Game 6 from Jalen Duren. This was never going to be an easy series for Duren, but it feels like he is taking more time to mature than others. He definitely improved this year, but the consistency they need from him just isn’t there yet.
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Now as the team goes home they will need Duren to be a beast on the glass. If he can keep the Pistons in the rebounding battle, they should win this game with ease. They won Game 6 by just three rebounds, but that takes away a big dimension of what Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley do for the Cavs. It isn’t everything, though, as the Pistons won the rebounding battle in both losses in Cleveland.
I don’t see this being a runaway game for the Pistons. Mitchell and Cunningham likely will cancel each other out with scoring. Harden needs to establish himself as the third-best player on the floor. I haven’t seen him do that in the postseason, yet.
Cleveland Cavaliers All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and James Harden talk during Game 2 in the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs vs. the Toronto Raptors at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Ohio. (David Dermer/Imagn Images)
This is the second Game 7 of the playoffs for both of the clubs, so it isn’t like either will be caught off guard about what this entails.
If I look at it objectively, I think the Cavs have the better players. However, the Pistons have looked significantly better this season, and definitely in the playoffs overall. Both are prone to issues and slipping. The Cavs shouldn’t be as they are a veteran team.
This game has to be won by Cleveland, though. There is too much riding on the franchise and legacies of guys for them to not prepare properly for it. Maybe that’s weak analysis, but I’m taking the Cavs with the points and I do think they win outright. I expect a monster game from Mitchell, and Harden should get 10+ assists.
Either way, whoever wins will lose to the New York Knicks.
For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024
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