CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When it finally became official that his race team had beaten the long odds and won NASCAR’s biggest race — Brad Daugherty received a text message.
It was from Michael Jordan.
“He reached out and said, ‘Congratulations, my brother. Outstanding. I’m so proud of you,’ ” Daugherty recounted on Wednesday.
“And I just told him, I said, ‘You know, I am so proud of you.’ ”
Daugherty, co-owner of JTG Daugherty Racing, became the Black first principal owner to win a Daytona 500 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s 47 car finished out in front on Sunday. The 7-foot-tall North Carolina Tar Heel legend is one of the few Black owners in all of NASCAR — and he and his longtime friend, Jordan, are the only two Black principal owners with a NASCAR Cup Series charter.
Daugherty shared what he and Jordan said to each other after the race — a race that meant so much to both of them.
“The reality of it is, without Michael Jordan, and I told him this, we don’t have an African American driver sitting in a seat who’s capable of winning a race every week,” Daugherty said of Jordan, who co-owns 23XI Racing, which is the home of Bubba Wallace, the only Black driver in the Cup Series. “And I told him, I said, ‘This has been my sport for 35 years. I’ve been the guy, the African American guy who’s trying to (make) his way toward creating opportunity, and I’ve been able to do that with my race team by bringing guys in. And you see a lot of faces of color along pit road who started with my race team. And I’m proud of that.
“But I told Michael, the significance is: I was never going to be able to put Bubba Wallace in a racecar that was capable of winning every week because we’re just small, you know?” Daugherty continued. “But because Michael having the ability to step into that spotlight, and to step into that spot, Bubba Wallace has a chance to win a race every week now, and possibly win a championship at some point in time, and I thanked Michael for that.”
Daugherty couldn’t be there at Sunday’s race. He had eye surgery earlier this month, and that made it difficult for him to see in the sunlight, he said. He elected to watch it at his home in Orlando, Fla.
Watching it on television, Daugherty almost couldn’t believe it, he said. He thought he might be imagining things. The win, after all, isn’t just a huge accomplishment for a kid who grew up racing in the mountains of North Carolina and who wore the No. 43 as his basketball number in the NBA because he idolized Richard Petty — it was also a momentous win for the sport: JTG Daugherty’s 50-person, one-Cup-car organization had triumphed over the big guys on the sport’s biggest stage.
Of course, a few minutes after the checkered flag, Daugherty started believing his eyes.
His phone started buzzing. NASCAR president Steve Phelps gave him call. Jordan texted. Even Wallace, the 23XI Racing driver, reached out, Daugherty said.
“I told Bubba the same thing,” Daugherty said. “He reached out, and I told him, ‘I pull for Bubba Wallace every weekend.’ I pull for that 47 first (Stenhouse) — don’t get me wrong — but I pull for Bubba every weekend.”
Daugherty added: “No one else, those big teams, was gonna give Bubba a chance. No one else was gonna give him the opportunity that he deserved. And he got it. And so, that’s where Michael and I stand. And I’m pulling for Michael Jordan every weekend to be successful. And I’m hoping that we beat him, obviously, but I pull for him every weekend.”
