NASCAR’s return to Chicago this weekend solidifies the American stock car racing fraternity’s beliefs in the future of street courses in the sport and bodes well for one of the teams competing at the highest level. 23XI Racing, co-owned by legendary basketball player Michael Jordan will be seeing one of its entries pay tribute to the former Chicago Bulls’ star’s affinity with ‘The Windy City’.

NASCAR world slams "Worst Jordan Scheme", gives Thumbs up to Bubba Wallace's Chicago Experiment
Jun 25, 2022; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; NASCAR Cup Series 23XI Racing owner Michael Jordan and driver Bubba Wallace (23) on pit road during qualifying for the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Jordan’s tenure of playing with the team during his active NBA days earned the now-cultural icon six championships and an unending amount of support from the area. Tyler Reddick’s #45 Toyota Camry this Sunday will be paying tribute to the same legacy with a special paint scheme.

However, fans did not seem to relish the new look of the #45 as much as they did other paint schemes in the past.

Others also reacted to the same citing the “laziness” of the design and wrote on social media, “Of all the Jordan schemes this seems the laziest.”

Despite the lukewarm reception for the new colors of the #45 Toyota, driver Tyler Reddick seemed upbeat previewing his race ahead this Sunday and told NewsNation, “It just adds to the pressure but that’s been good for us normally. It just seems like when we run these wonderful Jordan brand schemes we rise to the moment and it really brings some good performance out of our cars.”

The 2024 Grant Park 165 will be seen going live from the streets of Downtown, Chicago this Sunday at 4:30 pm ET.

Bubba Wallace’s one-off paint scheme well received ahead of NASCAR’s return to Chicago

In stark comparison to his teammate, the driver and crew behind the #23 Toyota Camry fielded by 23XI Racing was greeted with much praise for their new colors in Windy City. The unique paint scheme combined two varied aspects of culture from around the world by mixing a sponsorship from the American fast food chain Mcdonalds with the Japanese anime Jujutsu Kaizen.

Fans seemed to love what the creative minds behind the scheme came up with and reacted to the same.

“It’s so beautiful.” said one fan, while another appreciated the unique collaboration and wrote, “As a fan of the anime and NASCAR I love to see my two worlds collide.”

It remains to be seen how well the team manages to perform at an event which is very much an outlier on the season calendar.