Love Takes Daytona Xfinity Win in Overtime

Jesse Love, driver of the #2 Whelen Chevrolet celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Picking up where his teammate left off, Jesse Love won Saturday’s United Rentals 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

Restarting from the outside of the front row in overtime, Love squeezed his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in front of the No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford of Sam Mayer on the bottom lane and held off the Franklin, Wisconsin native as the field came to the white flag. A crash behind them brought out the yellow as they crossed the start-finish line, thus ending the race.

“I kind of knew that if I didn’t get down that we were probably going to lose the race,” said Love. “Whether or not I was clear, I knew that that was the only move I could make. Had to kind of get down there, and if I wasn’t clear, hope that I kind of knock him down, then I kind of stalled and let him out and then I could still be the leader.

“But regardless of the situation, we were just clear enough, and I kind of thought I was clear, but then by the time I got kind of to his bumper, he was, like, connected immediately.

“It was probably when I made the decision to move down. He was probably a quarter car length back, but he was coming with momentum, so that kind of closed up and made it look really tight.”

Jesse Love, driver of the #2 Whelen Chevrolet takes the checkered flag under caution to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

In hindsight, Mayer wanted to view the video of the restart to see if there was anything he could’ve done differently.

“Yeah, I’m definitely going to go look at it and see if I can do anything better because I’m definitely learning as we go.

“But huge props to this team. This Audibel Ford Mustang was really, really fast today. 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, but so far, so good.” 

Love’s RCR teammate, Austin Hill, was on track to score his fourth straight February Xfinity Series race at Daytona, winning the race’s first two stages, until a fluid lead from the rear of his car forced him out of the race. Love credited Hill for coaching and helping him when it comes to the art of superspeedway racing.

“Yeah, Austin has helped me a ton. I came here last year as a rookie and because of him I had a wealth of knowledge. I’m in this spot today because he was selfless enough in the moment to help me out when I needed it and didn’t hide anything from me.

“I had to learn a lot,” Love continued, “and I came into it not knowing much, but Austin was an open book for me for the first months of leading up to Daytona last year, and obviously that shortened my learning curve a lot.

“I was a rookie last year at the speedways, but I had a wealth of knowledge because of him, and I have three pages of notes that he wrote for me to look over before I come to these racetracks. He’s the best at it. There’s nobody better than him at this package. He would have been really tough to beat tonight, and obviously it helps when our cars are as good as they are.”

Jesse Love, driver of the #2 Whelen Chevrolet leads Connor Zilisch, driver of the #88 WeatherTech Chevrolet and Sheldon Creed, driver of the #00 Friends of Jaclyn Ford during the NASCAR Xfinity Series United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)

The win was Love’s second in his brief Xfinity Series career with both of them coming at superspeedways. While Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway both feature racing in the draft, they are very different according to Love.

“I think that it was hard for me to win here for a while because I kind of thought the two were similar, and I just studied Daytona for weeks and tried to figure out what it is that doesn’t work for me here.

“Obviously kind of figured it out, and the moment for me was I went and watched Talladega, and I was like, none of these moves are going to work at Daytona, and that’s when I realized, Talladega is kind of more checkers, and Daytona is a little bit more chess.

“That kind of goes with the exquisite nature of Daytona, kind of the tough, rooty, redneck nature of Talladega right? You’re kind of more balls to the wall there than you are here.

“But once I figured out the differences between the two, at least I thought I did, I kind of got halfway through the race and was at the end of Stage 2 in a predicament where I kind of sucked for lack of a better term the first two stages.

“My teammate was dominating the race and (I) kind of had a decision to where I could go back to what I was doing or stay the course and see if it panned out in the end like I thought it should. Thought I had nothing to lose, so stayed the course. So what I thought was going to work out in the end, which it comes down to just being really patient and staying with the line and making your line go forward and not pulling out and going three wide and things like that.”

Jesse Love, driver of the #2 Whelen Chevrolet celebrates with the his Richard Childress Racing crew after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Having dreamed of winning at Daytona, did reality exceed the dream for Love?

“I mean, this is the only place I cry during the National Anthem, or kind of get emotional. I’m an emotional guy, as everybody knows, and I try not to hide it.

“But this place is special. You come up racing here when I was at New Smyrna and just wanting to be a part of it, wanting to have the prestige of winning here and say the Lord’s name on a big stage.

“Obviously when you get to race for Richard, too, that is an added layer of kind of emotion when you come to these places. And what makes it more special is it’s a place that I’ve showed at in the past and worked really hard to overcome my struggles here. That makes it even more special because I stuck with the path, and there were days where it was hard, but still powered through it and gave it 100 percent of what I have.”