Love Battles Through Damage For Indy Top 15
Jesse Love in action at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (HHP/Jim Fluharty photo)
INDIANAPOLIS – What started as a potential nightmare for Jesse Love Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ultimately became a lesson in perseverance.
The 19-year-old NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie from Menlo Park, Calif., was involved in a lap-one accident at the start of the Pennzoil 250 at the Brickyard, collected in turn three after contact in the top five between Sam Mayer and A.J. Allmendinger sent Mayer spinning in front of most of the field.
Love left the accident scene with the right-front fender completely torn off his No. 2 Chevrolet Camaro, making for a long afternoon at the 2.5-mile IMS oval, where aerodynamics down the long front and back straightaways are key to generating speed.
His crew went to work, however, using Bear Bond tape to cover the opening in front of the tire as best they could so that Love could at least continue and attempt to salvage what positions he could.
Love did far more than salvage by the time the 100-lap race ended.
With the steering straight and a car that was “still drivable,” Love managed to fight his way back into the top 15 by making passes while also sticking in the draft of the cars ahead of him, minimizing the ill effects of his fender damage.
Crew chief Danny Stockman then made the call for Love to stay out on the final caution flag, setting him up fourth after the choose rule for the 11-lap sprint to the finish.
Love did what he could to try and push fellow Chevrolet driver A.J. Allmendinger to the lead, with the goal of following Allmendinger through on the outside, but didn’t have enough straight line speed to accomplish the goal and began to fade back in the waning laps.
He ended up 13th in the end, still managing to improve from where he started and retaining seventh place in the Xfinity Series point standings with six races to go in the regular season.
“We had a good National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund/Whelen Chevrolet Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, even though it started off rough,” said Love. “Heading into turn three for the first time on lap one, a couple of cars in front of me made contact, which caused a chain reaction. I had nowhere to go and sustained a heavy amount of front-end damage that could have easily ended our day, but my No. 2 Richard Childress Racing team did an excellent job of repairing and getting us back on track.
“Even though the entire right front fender was gone, luckily, the steering wasn’t bent,” Love continued. “I was able to pass cars to get back inside the top-15, and then Danny (Stockman) made a strategy call to stay out on the last round of pit stops. Restarting fourth, I knew I could still push, but with the damage, I couldn’t lead. I wanted to make sure I pushed a Chevrolet to the lead, so I tried to stick with the No. 16 car and help where I could. For the amount of damage we had, the car didn’t drive too bad all day.
“I’m proud of this team for fighting all day and coming home with a 13th-place finish in my first race at Indianapolis. I felt like we had a top-five car if not for the incident.”
Love also noted the significance of finally being able to race at the IMS oval, after cutting his teeth early on in open-wheel short track racing and viewing the Racing Capital of the World as “hallowed ground.”
“To finally be able to say I’ve raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is surreal,” Love noted. “I was there with my dad as a spectator in 2016 to watch the Indy 500, and Alexander Rossi won that race after we met him earlier in the weekend. Now to race an Xfinity car on the oval and have the same view that some of my heroes that I grew up watching have had … there’s not many things cooler than that.”
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will take three weeks off, while television partner NBC focuses on the Summer Olympics in Paris, before returning to action at the two-mile Michigan Int’l Speedway.
Broadcast coverage of the Cabo Wabo 250 is slated for Saturday, Aug. 17 at 3:30 p.m. ET, live on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
