After Tyler Reddick battled a stomach virus throughout the Southern 500 to eke out a 1-point win over Kyle Larson for NASCAR's regular-season championship, he and the 23XI Racing ownership group went to collect the trophy.
Reddick stood next to the trophy, team co-owner Michael Jordan by his side. Co-owners Denny Hamlin and Curtis Polk were on the other side. Nowhere to be found? A NASCAR executive to present the hardware.
"You know, certainly, pretty disappointed to not see anyone from NASCAR present Tyler his trophy," Hamlin said.
Was it personal? He didn't know, but he could not recall another time a NASCAR bigwig wasn't on hand to pass out shiny new hardware.
With the 10-race playoffs opening Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, NASCAR and its teams remain bitterly locked in a years-long feud on an extension of the franchise system at the heart of the business. The teams want a bigger share of the revenue pie, a seat at the negotiating table and for charters - they guarantee a spot in any Cup Series race and thus part of the purse - to become permanent.
