Michael Jordan is in the news right now because of how he celebrated after the Daytona 500 race win with his NASCAR team, 23XI Racing, not because of anything he did in an actual car race himself.

Quick Scoop: What did Michael Jordan do after the race?

After Tyler Reddick won the 2026 Daytona 500 driving for Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing team, Jordan joined the on-track celebrations with Reddick and his family. During the champagne-and-spray chaos, a short clip captured Jordan repeatedly reaching toward the back of Reddick’s young son Beau’s shirt and making small pinching motions, then rubbing the back of the child’s leg.

That brief moment is what everyone online is referring to when they ask “what did Michael Jordan do after the race?” The clip went viral and sparked a wave of social-media debate and forum threads.

Why people are talking about it

Many viewers felt the gesture looked odd or uncomfortable in a fast, out-of- context clip and criticized Jordan for touching the child that way during the celebration. Others pushed back, arguing that people were overreacting and likely misreading an innocent moment in the middle of a chaotic victory scene.

One popular explanation floating around is that an ice cube or something cold had gone down the back of the kid’s shirt or into his shorts during the champagne shower, and Jordan was just trying to help get it out. However, this is speculation from fans and commenters; it has not been clearly confirmed on camera.

What actually happened, as best we know

From the currently available reporting:

  • Jordan was celebrating his team’s first Daytona 500 win as a co-owner, a huge NASCAR milestone for him and 23XI Racing.
  • In the midst of that celebration, he interacted playfully—but somewhat strangely on video—with Reddick’s young son, repeatedly pinching or tugging at the back of the boy’s shirt/shorts area.
  • The short video clip, separated from the wider context of the noisy, chaotic track celebration, spread rapidly and triggered a backlash plus defenses of Jordan online.

So, if you see threads or headlines asking “what did Michael Jordan do after the race,” they are almost certainly talking about this brief, much-debated interaction with Tyler Reddick’s child during the Daytona 500 victory celebration, not about any official “action” taken by Jordan afterward.

TL;DR: After the race, Michael Jordan celebrated on track with his driver Tyler Reddick’s family, and a short clip of him repeatedly pinching at Reddick’s young son’s back/shorts during the champagne chaos went viral, leading to criticism, defenses, and lots of speculation about what he was actually doing.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.