Tyler Reddick has dismissed a ridiculous online storm about an interaction between his son and Michael Jordan after Sunday's Daytona 500.

A video clip went around after the race of Jordan tugging at the back of Beau Reddick's shirt and legs during the post-race, which some social media users called 'weird'..

Fairly obviously, the actual context was...entirely harmless, as Reddick confirmed when he was asked about the clip on the Stephen A. Smith show.

“From my perspective," he said, "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."

Reddick: Daytona win huge for our families

He continued: “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.”

Just to get serious for a second...what are we doing here? How have we managed to create a culture that results in someone being asked to talk about whether his boss was acting inappropriately with his son, on national air, less than 24 hours after one of the most important days of his life?

What is the train of logic here? Were the people sharing the clip seriously accusing MJ of acting untowardly toward a young boy, his employee's son, while surrounded by his own team and that boy's family? While on camera?

We're going to go ahead and put the number of people who had real concerns about that at around 2 per cent. Then it's a bunch of people trying to get jokes off, play LeBron vs MJ games, eke a few dollars of engagement money out of Elon Musk, and other disingenuous things.

And for that, the memory of a Daytona 500 win is spoiled for a driver and a family – and a young boy celebrating his father's victory – are put under scrutiny. Shame. Shame that it ever got to the point of being a talking point. Shame on the people gleefully sharing it for clout without a moment's concern.

NASCAR STANDINGS: Tyler Reddick on top after Daytona 500, Joe Gibbs Racing star 37th