Tyler Reddick clinched the NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Championship at the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, despite battling a severe stomach illness. This incredible achievement was marked by his co-owner, NBA legend Michael Jordan, praising Reddick’s tenacity by drawing parallels to his iconic Flu Game during the 1997 NBA Finals.

Whilst speaking to the media after the race, Jordan commented, as quoted by NASCAR.com:

“I mean, I know what it feels like to be sick and trying to perform, and just to do what he did, I mean, I wasn’t going around 200 miles an hour in a car, but I’m proud of his effort, and we needed it.

“We won by one point. I mean, he gutted it out. So hopefully he feels better tomorrow, and we feel better next week.”

For much of the race, Reddick contended not just with debilitating discomfort caused by a stomach bug he contracted from his son, Beau. The intense heat of the day added another layer of challenge as the No. 45 Toyota driver navigated the grueling conditions.

Throughout the race, Reddick’s crew chief, Billy Scott, and the team provided relentless support.

The final stage of the race commenced with Reddick trailing Kyle Larson by one point in the overall standings. To clinch the championship, he needed to end at least two positions ahead of Larson due to the tiebreaker rules.

As Reddick dealt with his illness, Jordan motivated him over the radio, with the team frequently reminding him of Jordan’s legendary performance despite sickness.

A pivotal moment came with a multicar crash that allowed Reddick to improve his standing, ultimately finishing 10th in the race, narrowly securing the championship by a single point over Larson. Reddick commented after the race:

“Yeah, it’s just a testament to all the hard work that everyone at 23XI, here at the race track, week in and week out, back at Airspeed, puts into this.

“We’re on Year 4 of their goals, right? It’s just been really, really fun the last two years to be a part of this process, building up to where we want to be.”

He added:

“To answer that, it’s what we have right in front of us.

“We’re trying to win this thing, win the regular season. I mean, that’s what we were mindful of the whole way. Just trying to think of what we could do to stay in the hunt of that.

“We got to Stage 3, we were just thinking, OK, how many points are we behind? Where do we need to be? We went to work on what we needed to do to try to put ourselves in position to get there.

“I mean, it took things out of our control to make it happen. Some cars got in front of the 5 (Larson). That’s ultimately what allowed us to get it from 10th.

“Yeah, just got to fight all night long. You never can count on that happening, right? The best car all night losing control of the race. But you have to be in position to take advantage of it in case it does.”

Billy Scott also reflected on the monumental effort:

“We were making jokes about it because Michael was giving him a hard time, asked if he was alive, and he said the flu game there was always a very notable win, back in the day on their run to the championship.

“We were making jokes about we were going to compare how many points he got versus Michael got that day. So yeah, that’s amazing to gut that out, to run top 10 all day long, to finish top 10, to have to make the passes there at the end that he needed to put us in position to win. You’re right, I have not experienced that, not witnessed that, but I can’t imagine how tough it was.”