Love Comes From The Rear For Sixth At Darlington

Jesse Love (2) battles Corey Heim at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. (John Harrelson/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Rallying from a qualifying mishap and getting his NASCAR Xfinity Series season back on track, Jesse Love drove through the field to finish sixth Saturday at Darlington Raceway.

Love scrubbed the outside wall on his qualifying lap and had to drop to the back to start the Sport Clips Haircuts/VFW Help a Hero 200, but stayed calm and methodically worked his way into contention for a strong finish.

The 19-year-old from Menlo Park, Calif., was 11th at the halfway point of the 200-miler, and though he didn’t earn any stage points, Love still spent 70 percent of the race inside the top 15.

He cracked the top 10 by the time the final stage was underway, and ultimately made it into the leading half dozen at the checkered flag with the No. 2 Whelen Engineering Chevrolet Camaro.

Saturday’s sixth-place finish stopped a skid of four finishes of 13th or worse for Love, including being pinned a lap down late at Michigan Int’l Speedway and involved in a crash at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway in the two races prior to Darlington.

“We had a really good Whelen Chevrolet at Darlington Raceway,” lauded Love. “I got into the wall during qualifying and hurt the right side of our No. 2 Chevrolet, and my team was able to fix the damage, but we were forced to start at the tail end of the field. That can be a treacherous place to be at a track like Darlington, but my spotter [Brandon Benesch] kept me calm early and reminded me to not burn the tires [up] before stage one was complete. From there, we were able to steadily move forward.

“[Crew chief] Danny Stockman made great calls, our adjustments improved the balance of the car, and our pit crew clicked off fast stops throughout the race. Our team performed well overall,” Love continued. “With the way the last few weeks have been for our team, it feels like a win to leave here with a solid run. We need to have more races like today, and I know we have the team to do it.”

With three races remaining before the playoff reset, Love sits eighth in the aggregate point standings and in line to earn bonus playoff points if he can remain inside the top 10 through the regular season finale at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Sept. 20.

His 280 laps led are fourth-most in the series and he holds the seventh-best average finish through 23 races at 13.7.

Love’s next shot at his second Xfinity Series win of the year comes Sept. 7 at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway, where he came excruciatingly close to breaking through into victory lane during the second race of the season back in February.

It was at Atlanta where Love exploded onto the scene by leading 157 laps from the pole, only to lose the race in overtime after his fuel tank ran dry coming to green on the final restart.

Now, Love heads back to the Peach State with his eyes set on one thing: redemption.

“We had it at Atlanta in the spring; we had the best car and circumstances just didn’t work out our way at the very end,” Love noted. “I really, really want to win there this time and if we can stay clean and focus on what we can control, I believe we’ll have a shot to finish what we started in February.”

Broadcast coverage of the Focused Health 250 is slated for Saturday at 3 p.m. ET, live on USA, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.