Basketball legend Michael Jordan has agreed to purchase a NASCAR Cup Series Charter and Bubba Wallace will be the driver for ‘His Airness’ when the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season begins.
Jordan, widely considered to be the greatest basketball player of all time and current owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, will be the majority owner of a NASCAR Cup Series team. Wallace, the series’ lone Black driver in the midst of a career-best season, has found a home after announcing earlier this month that he would not return to Richard Petty Motorsports.
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Also announced Monday was news that Denny Hamlin would also be a minority owner of the team. Hamlin has long been connected to Jordan through the latter’s Jordan Brand, and the two are close friends.
Wallace has made 105 career starts at NASCAR’s top level, all of them with RPM. He has five top-10 finishes this year, including a fifth-place run in the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway, which is also site of his career-best finish – runner-up in the 2018 Daytona 500.
Hamlin had expressed interest in NASCAR team ownership this year. He addressed rumors of his involvement on the ownership side earlier this month.
“I think that I’m always looking towards what I’m going to do after my driving career is over,” Hamlin said. “I’ve got some great partners that support me and my decisions in what I will do for years to come.”
Hamlin will remain a driver of the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, where he has six wins this year and is one of the favorites to win the 2020 championship.
In addition to Hamlin, Jordan announced that Bob Germain will remain onboard as part of the new team after selling his charter. Germain has fielded the No. 13 car full time at NASCAR’s top level for nine seasons, with Ty Dillon in his fourth year with the team.
Jordan has attended several NASCAR races over the years, most recently the 2019 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway when Hamlin was in the Championship 4 and competing for his first championship.
“I’m a big race fan,” Jordan told NBC’s Dale Earnhardt Jr., who did the interview. “Started off when I was a kid and I grew up watching (Dale Earnhardt), Richard Petty … Cale Yarborough was an original 11 that I remember. Now I’m good friends with Denny Hamlin and we go way back. … I’m a big NASCAR fan, so I came out to support him.”
NASCAR President Steve Phelps confirmed during a pre-playoffs roundtable with reporters on Sept. 1 that it’s possible for a current driver of a four-car team to own all or part of another team – but that NASCAR would have to ensure fair competition. Additionally, Phelps added the NASCAR Charter system and development of the Next Gen car – which will debut in 2022 – has created a surge of ownership interest.
“On the expense side, I think that what we’ve done, working with our teams and our OEMs to pull costs out of the system. From that perspective, I think it’s improving,” Phelps said. He also suggested that the number of new owners trying to get into this sport “has never been higher” and that he’s seen “a ton of enthusiasm” for future team ownership under the current business model.
This story will be updated.
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