Love Ignites Quest For Home State Victory From Fourth

Jesse Love in action Friday at Sonoma Raceway. (John Harrelson/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

SONOMA, Calif. – Jesse Love kicked off the lone NASCAR Xfinity Series visit to his home state off in solid fashion Friday with a fourth-place qualifying effort at Sonoma Raceway.

Carrying a special Whelen Engineering scheme for Richard Childress Racing highlighting the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, Love took the No. 2 Chevrolet to a lap of one minute, 15.839 seconds (94.463 mph) around the 1.99-mile, 12-turn natural road course.

It puts Love on the second row for Saturday’s Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250, right behind polesitter Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch, Love’s best friend and longtime rival.

“The three of us have a group chat, and I was all excited because Connor and I beat Shane in practice,” joked Love. “And then he went out in qualifying and we see what happened there.”

Love was second quickest behind Zilisch during practice and picked up nearly a tenth of a second on that mark on his qualifying run.

He actually debated going out a second time in his time trial group to take a stab at getting to the front row, but eventually agreed with crew chief Danny Stockman that the risk outweighed the potential reward.

“I felt like, if I could have put a really good lap together, that second was in reach for us … but the other side of that is that the track was getting hotter, and if I didn’t beat Connor’s time then I’d be third and we didn’t want to line up second row [on the] left side,” Love explained. “I’d rather be to driver’s right with the way that the start flows. So that was about weighing the pros and cons and seeing where the [No.] 8 [Sammy Smith] and other guys close to us on pace would stack up.

“Overall, though, I was happy with the lap. It was similar to my mock run [from practice],” he added. “I ran about 90 percent and just didn’t expect to have the grip that I had. I wish I could have redone it, looking back now, but it’s still a good starting point for us for race day.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t still challenges for Love out on the course, despite his positive outlook following qualifying.

“For me, turn four doesn’t really fit my driving style naturally, for whatever reason,” Love said. “I know what I have to do differently there, and that’s the positive, but I didn’t really implement it out there like I needed to through practice and qualifying. Turn four as a whole and then getting out of [turn] seven are my weaker points, I feel like. So those are the things I know I need to get better at.

“Overall, though, we have a pretty fast Whelen Chevrolet. I think if we put a whole race together and keep the tires on it, we’ll be in good shape,” he continued. “The track is starting to age a little bit and turning back into old Sonoma, where if you piss off your tires it’s hard to get them back … and I like a driving challenge like that.

“It’s going to be a balance, but a lot of fun on Saturday, I feel like.”

Love started sixth and finished 12th last year in his lone visit so far to Sonoma in the Xfinity Series.

He’ll seek to better that in the Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250, airing Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. ET on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.