Love Eager For Short-Track Saturday With RCR Cup Team

Jesse Love (David Rosenblum/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

RICHMOND, Va. – Jesse Love is set for his final scheduled NASCAR Cup Series appearance of the season, and his second short-track start at the sport’s top level, Saturday night at Richmond Raceway.

Love will wheel the No. 33 C4 Ultimate Energy Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing for the third time, as he tackles the three-quarter-mile, D-shaped short track under the direction of crew chief Andy Street.

It’s a facility that the 20-year-old from Menlo Park, Calif., has never raced at in his brief Cup Series career, but given his short-track background and other similar racetracks he’s competed at in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Love believes he has a general idea of what to expect from the Cook Out 400.

“[Richmond] is a short, flat oval, so Martinsville Speedway, Phoenix Raceway, and Iowa Speedway are all similar [to it] and racetracks that I am pretty good at,” explained Love. “But Richmond is its own beast because it is a D-shaped oval. It is shorter and flatter than most. It is low grip, with a lot of tire fall off.

“We know that it will likely be very difficult to pass, because everyone will be roughly running the same speed,” he added. “That’s going to make restarts and qualifying important. We’ll have to be smart and manage a good race, but I know our RCR crew is capable of that and believe we can execute a good race.”

Love’s four prior Cup Series starts this year have been at a variety of track styles and seen a mixed bag of results, with races at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, and most recently at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the crown jewel Brickyard 400.

At IMS, Love picked up his career-best Cup Series finish to-date of 24th driving for Beard Motorsports, and feels his results have progressed as he’s continued to learn more about the Next-Gen car.

“I have learned how to be more aggressive with the No. 33 C4 Ultimate Energy Chevrolet. I am working on improving my restarts, learning about the grip pickup in qualifying, and what kind of balance I need in the car,” Love noted. “That’s what I’ve really picked up on, is what kind of balance I need as a driver to go fast. I feel like I’ve been able to narrow in on that, and for me that is to be a little bit tighter.

“For someone else that might be different, but for me it is to have that heavy wheel feel and if I can have that, then I feel more comfortable behind the wheel.”

Richmond comes during an off week for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, allowing Love to shift his focus from his regular ride in the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet for RCR in the second-tier division.

Love is locked into the Xfinity Series playoffs by virtue of his season-opening win at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway in February, and is riding a run of seven top-10 finishes in the last 10 races, including runner-up efforts at both Pocono Raceway and Iowa Speedway.

He ranks fourth in the Xfinity Series’ regular season standings with three races to go before the postseason begins.

Despite the potential for rest, Love tipped that he wanted to keep his rhythm by being behind the wheel for any extra laps he could get before turning his full attention to an Xfinity Series championship run.

“I love driving; this is all I’ve worked for is to be able to suit up on Sundays, or a Saturday night in this case,” he said. “It’s going to be fun to race under the lights at Richmond. I grew up on short tracks racing on Saturday nights, and this race brings some of that feel back to me going into the weekend.

“It’s all about more learning and controlling the things that we can control as a team, and if we do that, we’ll consider this a success no matter what the result ends up showing on paper. I’m a competitor, though, so if we can improve on what I did at Indy last month, that’s something to celebrate as well!”

Broadcast coverage of Saturday’s Cook Out 400 is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET, live on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.