23 hours Ago By Joshua Mbu
NBA legend Michael Jordan 's NASCAR team 23XI Racing released a cryptic tweet teasing a third Cup Series driver after scoring a win in their bitter dispute with the government body. The NASCAR Cup Series team's participation in 2025 was thrown into doubt after a feud over the charter agreement . Alongside Front Row Motorsports, 23XI Racing refused to sign NASCAR's new charter agreement , and a legal battle ensued.
Now, NASCAR has removed a provision that would have barred both teams from competing as non-chartered teams in 2025. However, the impact it has on both teams' alleged purchase of charters from the outgoing team Stewart Haas Racing is unknown. Front Row has been linked with rookie driver Zane Smith, who turned out for Spire Motorsports in 2024, while 23XI Racing has yet to announce a third driver for 2025 to join reigning Regular Season champion Tyler Reddick and his teammate Bubba Wallace.
An announcement could be near, though. 23XI Racing has seemingly teased a huge announcement on social media. The racing team, who had Reddick competing in the Championship 4 earlier this month in Phoenix, posted a clock emoji to X accompanied by a video of an unrecognizable driver.
Two names have been touted as to who the mystery driver is. Truck Series star Corey Heim competed in one Cup Series race for 23XI Racing in 2024 and he also took six wins in his own series and a second-placed season finish. The other is Xfinity Series driver Riley Herbst, who also has nine Cup series appearances with a best finish of ninth.
Sponsorship could give Herbst the edge over Heim. Herbst's family owns the Terrible’s chain of gas stations, which has 179 locations across four U.S.
States: Nevada, California , Utah , and Arizona. He also has an existing sponsorship with Monster Energy. The drinks brand also sponsors 23XI Racing star Reddick, which could present an opportunity to strengthen ties between the team and Monster Energy.
An official announcement could come as soon as Wednesday. Heading into 2025, 23XI Racing has reasons to be optimistic, especially with Jordan's obvious influence on the team, as laid out by co-owner and Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin. DON'T MISS.
.. "I think that there's been kind of one specific competition meeting that he said he wanted to participate in.
And he listened to it and listened to it, and then at the end he gave his opinion on what he heard, and he didn't like what he heard. And he certainly [gave] some pointed remarks as to what championship teams sound like and what winning teams sound like and how we need to change the way we're communicating and the way that we're shifting blame all over the place. "It certainly – that was kind of a pivotal moment for our team and our drivers to hear about taking responsibility for each person's, you know, shortcomings and how you're going to get better.
And certainly that was a big moment to shifting our team's mentality.".
