Love Fights Through Damage For Portland Top 10

Jesse Love fought back from an incident at Portland Int'l Raceway for 10th place. (David Rosenblum/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

PORTLAND, Ore. – Despite damage sustained in a mid-race incident, Jesse Love battled to a top-10 finish Saturday with the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Portland Int’l Raceway.

After qualifying 10th and battling up to seventh at the end of stage one, Love got together with rookie William Sawalich during the second stage of the Pacific Office Automation 147.

From there, the 20-year-old from Menlo Park, Calif., spent the rest of the race fighting to rebound once his crew made repairs to the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet during the second stage break.

After dropping as low as 31st place, Love came through the field and worked his way through an overtime finish to come home 10th, benefiting from the choose rule to jump up and restart eighth on the final green-flag sprint.

It marked Love’s series-leading 17th top-10 finish in 25 races and brought his average finish for the year to an even 11.0, third best among full-time tour regulars.

“The Whelen team never gave up today. Portland wasn’t a great race for us last year, so we basically did a 180 coming back here,” said Love afterward. “I thought it was better for sure, and we learned a lot throughout the day. Our No. 2 Chevrolet struggled to get the power down in turns two and 12, but overall, we showed a lot of speed in the first half.

“We got contact from the No. 18 [of Sawalich] which damaged our right rear fender. After that, the car was loose on the backstretch and draggy down the frontstretch,” he added. “The guys fixed it the best they could under the last stage break, and we restarted deep in the field. Just kept our heads down and made up ground to finish inside the top-10.

“I’ve worked really hard on the road courses the last couple of seasons, and I think that helped when it mattered most.”

Locked into the playoffs via his season-opening win at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway in February, Love sits seventh in the seeding with one race remaining before the postseason reset.

His next test is at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill., where Love finished ninth in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series during his lone start at the 1.25-mile oval in 2023.

Broadcast coverage of the Nu Way 200 Sauced by Blue Hogs is slated for Saturday night, Sept. 6 at 7:30 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.