NASCAR News: Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin Launch Race Car Team With Bubba Wallace Driving

KEY POINTS

Michael Jordan will launch his own race car team in NASCAR for the 2021 season with Denny Hamlin serving as a minority owner and Bubba Wallace as the team's first driver
Jordan reveals he has been a fan of NASCAR his whole life
Wallace says joining Jordan's team is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in his career

Michael Jordan is coming to NASCAR – not as a driver, but rather as an owner.

The basketball legend is teaming up with three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin in forming a new race car team for the 2021 season with Bubba Wallace set to serve the team's first driver.

In a social media post on Monday, Hamlin announced his venture with Jordan, which will be a single-car Toyota entry aligned with Joe Gibbs Racing where the 39-year-old will continue to drive for with the No. 11 car.

"Eleven years ago I met Michael Jordan at a then-Charlotte Bobcats game and we became fast friends," wrote Hamlin, who will be serving as a minority owner of the team. "Not long after, I joined Jordan Brand as their first NASCAR athlete. Our friendship has grown over the years and now we are ready to take it to the next level.

"Deciding on the driver was easy -- it had to be Bubba Wallace."

The acquisition of the charter from Germain Racing will make Jordan the first Black majority owner of a full-time Nascar team since NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Wendall Scott owned and raced his own car from the 1960s into the early 1970s, according to Forbes.

"The opportunity to own my own racing team in partnership with my friend, Denny Hamlin, and to have Bubba Wallace driving for us, is very exciting for me," Jordan said in a statement, admitting that he has been a fan of NASCAR his whole life.

"Historically, NASCAR has struggled with diversity and there have been few Black owners. The timing seemed perfect as NASCAR is evolving and embracing social change more and more. In addition to the recent commitment and donations I have made to combat systemic racism, I see this as a chance to educate a new audience and open more opportunities for Black people in racing."

Wallace, meanwhile, said he is "pumped" to join Jordan’s new NASCAR Cup Series race team less than two weeks since announcing that he would leave Richard Petty Motorsports at the end of the 2020 season.

"This is a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I believe is a great fit for me at this point in my career," Wallace wrote in a statement.

"I'm grateful and humbled that they believe in me and I'm super pumped to begin this adventure with them."