Determination Leads Love To Seventh At Kansas Speedway

Jesse Love (2) battles Justin Bonsignore at Kansas Speedway. (John Harrelson/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Despite less-than-ideal conditions inside his No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet, Jesse Love gutted out a seventh-place finish in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway.

Love advanced from 12th on the grid to seventh by the end of stage one at the 1.5-mile oval, earning four valuable bonus points toward his playoff total, then hung tough despite just missing out on similar points in the second segment.

A slight miscue on pit road set Love back in 15th to begin the final stage, but the 20-year-old from Menlo Park, Calif., wasn’t about to lay over – even as he had to deal with sweltering conditions from a cool-suit issue that plagued him as the laps wore on.

Love rose back into the top 10 early in the final stage, getting up to eighth with 90 laps left, and he was running 10th after a green-flag pit cycle when the race’s final yellow flag waved for a crash off turn two.

One more round of adjustments helped Love further, and after lining up 10th for the last restart of the day on lap 163, several daring three-wide moves allowed him to jump up three places within three laps of the green flag.

After getting to seventh, Love maintained all the way to the checkered flag, earning his series-leading 19th top 10 of the year and staying above the Round of 12 cut line with one race remaining.

Love sits five points clear of Nick Sanchez entering the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, the final race in the first round of the postseason and a potential bringer of chaos for the title contenders.

But before that race, Love was simply happy to leave the Sunflower State with a strong run, even amid all the challenges that were thrown at him along the way.

“I’m proud of the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet team and how we rebounded with a top 10 finish this week at Kansas Speedway, to put ourselves ahead of the cutline with one race left in the Round of 12 for the playoffs,” Love noted. “We found some fast lines on the racetrack and were dialed in in the closing laps. Now it’s all eyes set on the Charlotte ROVAL next weekend and locking ourselves into the Round of 8.”

Love had a strong eighth-place qualifying effort last year at the 2.28-mile hybrid circuit which utilizes both the infield road course and parts of the 1.5-mile CMS oval, but late-race circumstances left him with a 19th-place finish at the ROVAL.

Even still, Love advanced out of that race into the Round of 8 in his rookie season. With a year’s experience under his belt, he hopes for a repeat performance this time around.

Broadcast coverage of the Blue Cross NC 250 is slated for Saturday, Oct. 4 at 5 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.