Broken Rear-End Housing Ends Love’s Day Early In Sonoma

Jesse Love (RCR photo)

SONOMA, Calif. – Jesse Love’s pursuit of a victory at Sonoma Raceway was derailed before it ever had a chance to truly begin Saturday afternoon.

After qualifying fourth and showing pace through the early laps of the Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250, Love was relegated behind the wall and out of the race just 11 laps in at the 1.99-mile, 12-turn natural road course with a broken rear end housing on his No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet.

The end result was a last-place finish for the 20-year-old from Menlo Park, Calif., the first time he’s brought up the rear in the final rundown in his young NASCAR Xfinity Series career.

Afterward, Love said it’s a kind of failure he’s never experienced before throughout all the time he’s spent racing across numerous divisions going back to his youth.

“Never, I’ve never seen anything like it, and neither has Danny [Stockman, crew chief],” Love said. “Not the day our No. 2 team had hoped for. It’s a bummer to break a rear-end housing so early in the race. There’s still a lot of good that came out of the weekend. Our team has put in a tremendous amount of effort on the road courses, and I felt like this was the first weekend we could run with Shane (van Gisbergen) and Connor (Zilisch). So it’s a real shame to not be able to see how that could have played out for us.

“There’s still a lot to be proud of with our Richard Childress Racing team, though,” he added. “We’ve had fast cars for the last month and a half, and these things happen. We will go back to the shop and come back stronger next week at Dover.”

Love dropped one position in the regular season standings to fifth as a result of the rough day, sliding behind longtime friend and rival Zilisch, who won the event in Northern California.

He sits 104 points behind series leader and defending champion Justin Allgaier with seven races left before the playoffs begin. Love is locked into the postseason thanks to his season-opening victory at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway back in February.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series move next to Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway, where Ryan Truex won a year ago at the one-mile, high-banked concrete oval known as the Monster Mile.

Love has one prior Dover Xfinity Series start. He qualified eighth and finished 24th in 2024.

Broadcast coverage of the BetRivers 200 at Dover is slated for Saturday, July 19 at 4:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.