Following in the successful ten-part miniseries “The Last Dance” last year—which focused on Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls—ESPN has film crews on hand at Daytona International Speedway to capture footage for the documentary’s sequel, “The First Dance”, focusing on Jordan’s new Nascar team, 23XI Racing.
“We’ve seen what the Jordan Brand means for sports fans, long after MJ last stepped off a basketball court”, said ESPN Films executive John Burger. “We have little doubt that his legions of fans will want to see the nuts-and-bolts of his management team setting up a Nascar Cup operation.
“And I mean that quite literally”, Burger explained. “There’s really LOTS of lug nuts involved in this sport, its really quite amazing.”
Following in “The Last Dance”’s footsteps, the documentary series will intersperse in-race footage and “fly on the wall” coverage with commentary from ESPN personalities and 23XI team members.
“I’ve already been interviewed twice by the crew”, said team engineer Guy Potlay. “I mean, there’s not much to go over beyond trying to ‘dial-in’ the car for different tracks, but I like to think I communicated to them some interesting information—like that time I got the vending machine in our race shop’s lobby working again, and that time (team co-owner) Denny Hamlin asked me if I’d parked in his parking spot—I hadn’t, by the way.”
23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace appeared unfazed by the added attention to the team.
“Oh, its nothing I’m not used to”, Wallace said after leaving a brief interview session in the garage with the ESPN crew. “Heck, Facebook did a series on me a few years back. Its pretty much the same, except the ESPN guys haven’t asked to watch me play the drums.”
Burger, the ESPN executive running point on “The First Dance”, said that they’ll be checking in with the 23XI Racing crew throughout the 2021 Nascar Cup season.
“From the first lap at Daytona to the last lap at Phoenix, we’ll be there to capture the heartache and happiness that comes with building a race team from the ground up”, Burger said. “And I’ve instructed all my cameramen to make sure they get dramatic panning shots of every race track we go to. When this premieres in 22 years I want to make sure the viewers know what its like to be at a Nascar race in the COVID-19 age.”
Michael Jordan was unable to be reached for comment for this story, although rumor has it that he’s already filmed b-roll footage of him laughing at an iPad.