Michael Jordan explains the 'gut feeling' that led him to become a NASCAR team owner

When Dale Earnhardt Jr. interviewed Michael Jordan for NBC Sports in 2019, he asked if Jordan would consider becoming a NASCAR team owner. Without hesitation, Jordan said: “Nah, I think I’m just going to sit back and watch it and support from afar.”

Well, a lot has changed in the last year because Jordan is teaming up with Denny Hamlin to form a new NASCAR team in 2021 with Bubba Wallace as the driver.

Actually recently, a lot changed in barely a week, according to Jordan, who told NBC Sports and FOX Sports on Wednesday that his team ownership opportunity came together in just 10 days. Jordan is a lifelong NASCAR fan, and he’s good friends with Hamlin — a Jordan-brand athlete and a three-time Daytona 500 winner competing for his first career championship behind the wheel of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

But the NBA GOAT getting directly involved in NASCAR began when he and Hamlin joked about joining forces for a Cup Series team in response to reports claiming their partnership was already in the works, NBC Sports reported Wednesday.

That joke quickly became a reality. More via NBC Sports:

“It was one of those things, again, it’s always been on my mind,” Jordan said of NASCAR team ownership. “I go with my gut feeling. When the time is right you know it. When this was presented to me, I felt good about it. When Bubba was involved in the whole conversation I felt good about it.

“My biggest conversation to Denny was, ‘Look, I don’t want to get in there to just go around the races and just go around and around and around and finish up 18th, 19th, 20th, 30th. I want to win. I want to be put in a position for the best chance for us to win. That’s my competitive nature. That’s always been who I am.

“When we got into this dialogue and I saw that OK, I might have a chance if we can put together the right situation to possibly win. That became more intriguing. That was my mindset going into this.

“I remember the conversation with Dale Earnhardt (last November). In essence, I love the sport. I was looking forward to an entry opportunity. This was the entry opportunity that was presented to me just the last 10 days.”

Jordan and Hamlin’s team doesn’t have a name, car number or confirmed manufacturer yet. But in a statement announcing the team Monday night, they said they purchased the NASCAR charter team from Germain Racing, which makes Jordan the first Black majority owner of a full-time Cup team since Hall of Famer Wendell Scott in the 1960s and ’70s.

In the statement, Jordan acknowledged NASCAR’s homogeneity as a mostly white, male sport and said the team with Wallace as its driver is “a chance to educate a new audience and open more opportunities for Black people in racing.”

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Jordan continued, via NBC Sports:

“For so long, it’s been viewed from a negative aspect with the Confederate flag and all these other things that occurred.

“Now you go in with NASCAR making an effort to change the perspective and try to attract and connect to the next generation without losing something for today’s authenticity of the sport presented an opportunity for me to get involved in this whole process and know that I am spearheading a thought process of Blacks getting involved in NASCAR”.

A leader in the NASCAR garage, Wallace was integral in getting NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag from all events back in June. The 26-year-old driver has also spoken out against racism within and outside of NASCAR and against police brutality. He and Richard Petty Motorsports, his current team, also ran a Black Lives Matter paint scheme this season.

Wallace has encouraged Black sports fans to follow NASCAR, and he received an abundance of support from his fellow drivers when it was thought he was the victim of a hate crime at Talladega Superspeedway in June.

Jordan applauded Wallace taking a stand and said the three-year veteran’s efforts were “a chip that added to this whole process.” More from FOX Sports:

“ adds to the uniqueness of this whole process,” Jordan said. “I hope for everybody’s sake it works out for the good of everyone.

“He’s going to represent us, Denny and myself, but he’s going to represent himself, as a Black man and as a Black driver. He made that stance well before me.”

But let’s not forget that Jordan — a legendary six-time NBA champion — still wants to win races with Wallace behind the wheel. Wallace wants a competitive opportunity too, and he told For The Win on Tuesday this new team can offer him that. He’s also expected to bring substantial sponsors with him, which would help make the new team competitive.

Hamlin said he’s “not naive” about how challenging it is to win at NASCAR’s top level, but he thinks Wallace can take his first career checkered flag in their first season, per FOX Sports.

Jordan appreciates that becoming a competitive team is a process, and he will be patient, FOX Sports reported. But he added: “I want to win tomorrow as soon as we get on the track.”