Love On Martinsville: ‘We Need And Want To Be Better’

Jesse Love (David Rosenblum/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Jesse Love may have grown up as a short-track racer on the West Coast, but he’s admittedly struggled to get a handle on Martinsville Speedway.

Love competed in asphalt midgets, late models, and more on racetracks under a half mile in length in his young, but never encountered anything close to the tight, hairpin-style corners and crowded straightaways that Martinsville features. It’s a layout Love calls “uniquely challenging.”

With NASCAR’s oldest continuously operating racetrack on tap this weekend for the Xfinity Series field, Love hopes that he and Richard Childress Racing can find the improvement they need to contend for a historic grandfather clock trophy in Saturday’s Marine Corps 250.

Love will take to the half-mile paper clip in his familiar No. 2 Whelen Engineering Chevrolet, hoping to better his track-best result of ninth from last year’s spring race at Martinsville during his rookie-of-the-year campaign.

The 20-year-old from Menlo Park, Calif., did qualify fourth for the playoff race there last November, but fought the handle in race trim and ended up 12th, failing to advance to the Championship 4.

He returns to Martinsville with high spirits, however, after a win in the season opener at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway in February and five top-10 finishes in the first six races of 2025.

“Every time that our No. 2 team shows up to the track, our goal is always to win. However, in saying that, Martinsville is probably my least favorite track that we go to,” he admitted. “We need and want to be better than we were there last season. I’ve put in a lot of work to prepare for this weekend and, hopefully, we can do just that.

“Danny (Stockman, crew chief) and the guys have changed the setup for our car, and we feel like it should be an improvement that will allow us to race where we know we should be, at the front of the field.”

Love’s average finish of 6.8 entering Martinsville is the best among all full-time competitors through six races and ranks second only to Aric Almirola’s 2.0 among those who have made multiple starts this season.

He’s completed every lap so far in 2025, one of just two drivers to do so.

Ranking third in the regular season standings to this point, Love sits 31 points behind defending series champion and current leader Justin Allgaier and just two back of Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer for second place.

Broadcast coverage of the Marine Corps 250 at Martinsville is slated for Saturday, March 29 at 5 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.