Love Rises Late To Win Xfinity Opener At Daytona

Jesse Love celebrates in victory lane Saturday night at Daytona Int'l Speedway. (HHP/Jacy Norgaard photo)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – His teammate Austin Hill may have dominated the majority of Saturday night’s United Rentals 300 at Daytona Int’l Speedway, but Jesse Love was dominant when it mattered most.

Love controlled an overtime restart under the floodlights of the World Center of Racing, slicing down in front of the Haas Factory Team duo of Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed during the first lap of extra distance and getting a huge shove from Mayer to propel out into the lead.

He then defended both lanes to perfection as the field came to the white flag, keeping himself out front as a block gone wrong from defending series champion Justin Allgaier in the middle of the pack sparked a massive crash in the tri-oval underneath the flagstand.

That forced NASCAR officials to call a caution flag that froze the field, giving Love the trophy in dramatic fashion.

It marked Love’s second career NASCAR Xfinity Series win and first at Daytona. His prior victory came last April at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Daytona’s sister facility.

“I just listened to the guy up there,” said Love of his late move to establish position in overtime. “I am so out of breath. Oh, my gosh, I'm out of breath. Just have to thank the good Lord above for putting me in this position. So many people have helped me get to this point, Billy Venturini, Shannon Rursch, the people that taught me how to race here at Daytona … thank you guys.

“It’s such a bummer what happened to the 21 (Hill),” Love added. “He was really dominant tonight. But listen, we’re working on changing our culture here at RCR. We’re winners. We know we are. We all want to win a championship for Richard Childress and, man, that car was fast all night.

“This is awesome.”

After Hill fell out of the race with a mechanical issue inside of 40 to go, Love worked his way to the front of the pack and stayed there to the finish. He took the lead for the first time on lap 95 of 120 and, from there, was out front three times for a combined 30 laps down the stretch.

But even while Hill as controlling most of the proceedings – leading five times for a race-high 56 laps – Love never doubted that he’d have something to fight with when the chips were down.

Jesse Love (2) leads the field on the final restart of Saturday's United Rentals 300 at Daytona Int'l Speedway. (Scotte Sprinkle/Race Face Digital photo)

“Man, once I got up front – I think Danny wanted to take sixth (place) there behind the Haas cars, but I had to see what this baby had out front,” Love explained, recalling the laps just before he finally reached the head of the line. “We didn’t get to qualify, and it takes me a little bit to get out front sometimes. I’m trying to play chess sometimes and not checkers at Daytona.

“We had speed, though. I knew that coming in and glad we were able to show it at the end.”

Hill swept the first two stages and, combined, he and Love led 86 of the race’s 126 laps. But a rear-end problem that caused a fluid leak during the final stage proved to be terminal for the race’s top driver.

“We showed we were the dominant team again (by) getting the stage wins there,” said Hill. “I just wish that we could have lost this race on our terms, not from a mechanical failure.”

Love mastered a lap-95 restart, set up after a bizarre incident between Kris Wright and Josh Bilicki during the final round of green-flag pit stops, and briefly swapped the lead with Creed on lap 103 before taking firmer control from that point on.

The only other time Love lost the lead the rest of the way was on lap 108, when his longtime buddy Connor Zilisch nipped him at start-finish to lead his only circuit of the night.

Love had to survive two late restarts, however, after a five-car crash in turn two with eight to go and a seven-car incident on the backstretch with two laps left bunched the field back up both times.

Mayer couldn’t get to Love to challenge in the end and had to settle for second in his first race with Haas Factory Team.

“Huge props to this team. This Audibel Ford Mustang was really, really fast today,” said Mayer. “I am super proud to be up at the front with these guys, especially with a new team like this. They worked really hard this offseason to make cars as fast as Xfinity Mobile, and so far, so good.

“I’m definitely going to go look back at (the video) and see if I can do anything better next time, because I’m definitely learning as we go, but there’s just a lot of positivity going on right now and I’m excited for what’s to come.”

Creed was scored third, followed by Carson Kvapil and Gray, who faded to fifth after pushing Love on the final restart.

Harrison Burton was sixth in his return to the Xfinity Series, with Jordan Anderson, Dean Thompson, Jeremy Clements, and Patrick Emerling rounding out the top 10.

For a 20-year-old from Menlo Park, Calif., who grew up with dreams of even being able to race at Daytona once in his lifetime, Saturday night’s triumph marked something more special than the young superstar could have ever imagined.

“Man, I’m at a loss for words. It’s Daytona. It’s what it means to win here,” Love said. “I always cry here when they (sing) the National Anthem. I'm star struck. I love Florida. This place is super special to me.

“We won at Daytona! I’ll remember this forever.”

Love and the rest of the NASCAR Xfinity Series field will return to action Saturday, Feb. 22 at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway with the running of the Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250.

Broadcast coverage of the event is slated for 5 p.m. ET on The CW, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.