Love Completes Season Sweep Of Atlanta Xfinity Qualifying

Jesse Love celebrates his fourth career NASCAR Xfinity Series pole Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. (Jacob Seelman photo)

HAMPTON, Ga. – Jesse Love sped to his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series pole of the year Saturday during Bennett Transportation Qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The 19-year-old from Menlo Park, Calif., topped both knockout rounds, and his lap of 31.927 seconds (173.646 mph) in the final round was more than enough to earn the prime starting spot on the grid for the Focused Health 250.

It’s Love’s third pole on a drafting track this year and he completed a season sweep of qualifying at Atlanta in the process.

“(Crew chief) Danny Stockman is great at what he does, and ECR [Earnhardt Childress Racing] Engines builds big, big power and good mileage, so I’m looking forward to showing that off all day,” said Love after his pole-winning lap. “All these guys do a great job on this No. 2 car.

“It always feels good to go as fast as Xfinity internet … and it’s good to put this car up front again. Superspeedway poles represent the team, maybe even more than the driver, so good to perform for them.”

Love then tipped his hand as to his strategy for the start of the race, noting that as the polesitter he’ll elect to start in the outside lane for the initial green flag.

“We got the 21 [teammate Austin Hill] starting fourth and A.J. [Allmendinger] in sixth,” he noted. “That’s a good group of Chevrolets with a lot of ECR power, so I’m going to let the other guys do what they want on the bottom … but the Bowtie Brigade is going to group up on the top at the start.”

Continuing his strong limited schedule in the Xfinity Series this year, Joe Gibbs Racing young gun Taylor Gray qualified second at 31.956 seconds (173.489 mph) and will join Love on the front row.

Defending series champion Cole Custer starts third in a Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, followed by Hill and Sheldon Creed, who remains on the hunt for his first Xfinity Series win after 11 runner-up finishes.

Allmendinger, Ryan Truex, Chandler Smith, Riley Herbst, and Justin Allgaier closed out the top 10 drivers who advanced through both rounds of qualifying.

Hill and Smith were the top two home-state drivers in Xfinity Series qualifying. In total, six drivers in the field are representing the state of Georgia Saturday.

JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer was the first driver who failed to advance out of round one, qualifying 11th at 32.259 seconds (171.859 mph) and missing the transfer by half-a-tenth of a second.

Mayer starts inside the sixth row in the No. 1 High Rock Vodka Chevrolet Camaro, seeking his third win of the season and first-ever victory at Atlanta.

Other notables starting deeper in the field include New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen (12th), Anthony Alfredo (15th), Brandon Jones (18th), Sammy Smith (19th), Corey Heim (21st), and Ryan Ellis (34th).

Kyle Weatherman was the lone driver who failed to post a qualifying time, but with only 37 drivers in attendance for 38 starting spots, he’ll start out back for DGM Racing in Saturday’s 250-miler.

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