Sometimes, even Michael Jordan needs to get a little bit lucky. The six-time NBA champion watched Tyler Reddick, of his 23XI Racing, win NASCAR’s Geico 500 at Talladega on Sunday.

Entering the last lap, Reddick was just behind polester Michael McDowell, who represented Ford’s best hope of getting its first win of 2024. McDowell nearly had it won, before trying to throw a late block.

“Just barely, barely wasn’t clear,” McDowell told Fox after the race.

McDowell took out Brad Keselowski, cars started spinning, and Reddick, driving a No. 45 Toyota meant to recall one of Jordan’s sneakers, slid across the line. It was his first superspeedway win.

Earlier in the day, it seemed Jordan had rotten luck. 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin had told the ex-Chicago Bull that he was bad luck every time he showed up at the track, and a crash on lap 155 nearly proved his point.

Bubba Wallace, the team’s other driver, saw his day end on a crash. The Toyotas in the field had pitted, trying to force the rest of the cars in late and cycle to the lead, an idea that momentarily seemed like it would work.

Instead, John Hunter Nemechek rear-ended Wallace, who hit Erik Jones, with Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing Camry also caught up in the wreck. All but Nemechek saw their days end at the infield car center with DNFs on the result sheet.

“It was certainly a really crappy day for about 20 minutes and then it all turned around pretty quickly,” Hamlin said, sitting in a post-race press conference as the winning owner.

Fortunately for Reddick, Jordan and the rest of the 23XI team, Reddick was leading the line of Toyotas and escaped unscathed. Coming down to the wire, he had Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs pushing, as McDowell led the field with fellow Ford driver Keselowski behind him.

At Turn 1, Reddick thought he was cooked.

“I was not liking what I was seeing,” he said. “I was like ‘Oh no, it’s slipping away,’”

Then, fate struck. McDowell made his move, cars started crashing and Reddick put the pedal to the floor.

He crossed the line, completing the last of Sunday’s 73 lead changes. Reddick didn’t find out his famous boss was in attendance until afterward.

Jordan had never been in the house for a 23XI win before. In the winner’s circle afterward, he held Reddick’s son Beau as the party began.

“Maybe that was the trick, us not knowing he was here,” Reddick said. “Because in the past we’d known he was here, we always push really, really hard, right? But it’d make it extra special if we’re able to take him to victory lane, so maybe it was a good thing I didn’t know he was here until it was all said and done.”

The NASCAR Cup series heads to Dover next week. In the meantime, the sport gets to take a week with one of the most famous athletes ever fully visible.

“It’s good for everything you can imagine,” Hamlin said. “You’re talking sponsorships, your manufacturers, your team morale. It’s just so good and it is in so many ways.”