Claim:
Footage from NASCAR's Daytona 500 victory celebration on Feb. 15, 2026, authentically depicted NBA legend Michael Jordan touching the backside of driver Tyler Reddick's young son.
Context
While the video is authentic, social media posts about Jordan's intent are speculative.
NASCAR driver Tyler Reddick raced NBA legend Michael Jordan's team, 23XI, to Daytona 500 victory on Feb. 15, 2026, placing first in one of the biggest U.S. racing events of the year.
In footage of the celebration following the win — during which Reddick and Jordan lifted the trophy together alongside the rest of their team — Jordan appeared to touch Reddick's son's backside in a way many people online said was inappropriate.
The video spread on multiple platforms (archived, archived, archived, archived), racking up millions of views and reactions.
Many people searched Snopes for confirmation that the video was authentic. The footage was indeed real, meaning not generated with artificial intelligence or otherwise edited; official NASCAR video (at 4:00:03) shows the moment during the team's celebration (archived):
Jordan grabbed the child's backside about nine times and then brushed his leg approximately eight times before the child turned around and bounced with excitement, looking out into the crowd. Because of this, we've rated this claim true. However, posts about Jordan's intent were speculative.
The child, Reddick's son, was seen interacting with Jordan multiple times throughout the video. At 3:58:33, for example, Jordan lifted him onto the platform and wrapped his arm around the child's shoulder.
Reddick addressed the circulated footage during a radio interview on Feb. 17 with SiriusXM's Stephen A. Smith, who asked Reddick about the "media backlash" following the celebration with his family. Reddick responded:
From my perspective, I've gotten to know Michael and his family very well over the years I've been here with 23XI, and I don't see what other people see when it comes to this. For me, it's a huge moment; this is the biggest moment of my career. It's a huge moment for my family and for his family, and I just put that off to the side and think about the look on [Michael Jordan's wife] Yvette's face and the whole family and his whole group when they got to victory lane too, and just how happy everybody was celebrating together. So, that's where I'm at with it.
We reached out to 23XI Racing as well as Jordan's and Reddick's representatives for further comment and will update this story if we receive a response.
Several social media users claimed the most widely circulated clip lacked context: that the child was splashed with Gatorade and ice during the celebration and that Jordan was attempting to dislodge ice from his shirt or something similar.
While it is true that the child was splashed during the celebration and his shirt appeared to be wet in the clip, it was unclear whether this had anything to do with Jordan touching his backside. As of this writing, Jordan has not offered any public explanation as to why he touched Reddick's son.