Low fuel? No problem for Richard Childress Racing rookie Jesse Love. The No. 2 survived two overtimes and held off several underdogs to score his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Talladega Superspeedway Saturday (April 20).
Love got the lead late after getting squirrelly while racing with Parker Kligerman and Sheldon Creed on the first overtime restart. Creed’s car went up the track and tagged the left rear of Josh Williams, who was turned down into Kligerman, bringing out the caution.
In overtime number two, Love was the lead car and blocked others’ advances in the final two laps. He crossed the finish line as other cars went to different lanes, jockeying for positions.
Riley Herbst somehow worked his way through to finish in second, while Anthony Alfredo finished third. Leland Honeyman and Brennan Poole rounded out the top five.
Winners
Love’s strong race started in the first 30 laps when he passed his teammate Austin Hill for the lead just before the caution flew for Justin Allgaier on the last lap of stage one. He then followed that up with a second-place finish in stage two.
The final stage saw other drivers at the front of the pack, with Hill taking the lead four different times. But attrition is often the name of the game for superspeedways, and Saturday was no different. The race had two Big Ones, the second of which was set off by a spinning Hill in front of the field.
Somehow Love was able to get by all of the carnage and take first around lap 100. That wasn’t the only thing he worried about, though.
With the race going in overtime, the topic of fuel-saving was once again brought up and was deja vu for the No. 2 driver. See, back at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February, Love had the opportunity to win his first race. What spoiled his plan? You guessed it, he ran out of gas.
Fast forward to April 20, and Love once again was concerned about fuel. This time, however, he had enough fuel in the tank to conquer two overtimes while other cars dropped like flies when they ran out.
Talladega is likely a special track for Love, as it’s the place where he earned the first of 10 wins last year en route to the ARCA Menards Series championship. But to magically save fuel in a little bit of a longer race, and to compete at Talladega for the first time in an Xfinity car with no practice, that’s special. He’ll be one to watch this year, not just for more wins, but possibly contending for the…
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