Jesse Love is near the top of many NASCAR prospect lists. He specializes in adapting on the fly, always maximizing his car’s potential.
Love grew up racing on dirt, in addition to running road courses in legends cars and competing in late models. That diversity is paying dividends in the Xfinity Series at just 20 years old, with an immense amount of consistency in his sophomore season.
“I think of myself as a driver that is a pretty complete pie without humongous spikes,” Love told Jayski. “I’m trying to grow the pie gradually and get better as a whole pretty evenly. Feel like we’re making progress on the speed part, which helps showing up and being better, not just being consistently a contender.”
Love has brought his California swagger to the Xfinity Series for the last year-and-a-half with Richard Childress Racing. Aside from scoring his first victory at Talladega Superspeedway, admittedly, he “wasn’t the most impressive rookie of all time.” But consistency was key and it transitioned into his second year, having the third best average finish (11.4) in the series through 23 starts.
“We’re definitely more of a championship contender this year than we were last year,” Love said. “I feel like we’re checking things off the list. Before Iowa, our biggest thing was we needed speed. We were racing well, but not qualifying or practicing well.”
In the aforementioned Iowa race, Love scored the pole and led 3 1 laps before finishing runner-up to Sam Mayer. The No. 2 Chevrolet has six top-five finishes, one shy than its 2024 total. Love is inching closer to his top 10 total from last year (18), as well, sitting three shy of his rookie season.
“We’re ridiculously consistent,” Love added. “We’ve been close all year and have been battling for the wins up front late in the races. That is probably our strong point, our consistency and being able to build off it. Our weak point is having a little more potential.”
Veteran crew chief Danny Stockman Jr. is leading the charge in finding that additional boost. Since being paired together, the fiery Stockman has toughened Love up, as he settles into the RCR way.
Stockman thrives off helping propel young talent. He’s guided the way for the likes of Austin Dillon, Daniel Hemric, Chandler Smith and Nick Sanchez all in the developmental stages of their respective careers. He won the 2011 Craftsman Truck Series and 2013 Xfinity Series championships with Dillon.
Yet Stockman believes he’s formed a tighter relationship to Love than any of his previous drivers. Love’s talent level, he believes, is undeniable, which puts more pressure on his shoulders.
“I told him from the beginning that if he doesn’t make it to the next level, I’ve failed,” Stockman said. “I’m pretty honest with my kids when I get them, and I expect them to be honest with me. It’s almost like a husband and wife relationship: when you’re not honest, there’s going to be hard conversations and conversations that aren’t fun. But you have to talk about them to make each other stronger.”
Honest conversations are often held within the walls of RCR, so the organization can power forward. Before Iowa, the pairing called each other out for needing more speed and working on their race craft. They followed it up with their second runner-up finish during a seven-race stretch.
“Not everyone is willing to go through the same brutal honesty that I’m willing to go through to be better,” Love stated. “I feel like a lot of people get defensive in this world now, and I try not to be like that.”
With three races remaining in the regular season, the No. 2 team believes it’s well positioned for a deep playoff push. Currently, Love ranks as the fourth seed via winning the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. But the No. 2 team is searching for more.
“I feel like we’re a third- or fourth-place team right now,” Stockman said. “To beat [Justin Allgaier and Connor Zilisch], that’s not going to just take consistency or good finishes, but you’re going to have to win races. Those guys are dominating and leading a lot of laps and they are definitely better than we are right now.
“We’ve got to get to the point where we’re leading laps. Winning stages is important and we’re not doing that. I think our consistency can get us [to Phoenix], but I think we’re going to have to pick it up.”
Looking ahead, Love hopes to be racing in the Cup Series sooner rather than later. He’s made five starts this season, placing 33rd last weekend at Richmond Raceway. One thing that’s in his favor is he’s always jumped at opportunities at a young age and succeeded.
“I know where I’m already up to speed and good at in the Cup car, and I know I need a lot of improvement,” Love said. “I would like to have time on that and not get rushed to figure it out where – if I just went cold turkey into a Cup car – it would be coming at me so fast that I would be trying to improve on something while immediately going to another race.”
Stockman believes Love needs at least one additional season in the Xfinity Series to hone in on his craft before making the full-time jump to Sundays.
“I think the goal needs to be winning on a consistent basis,” Stockman added. “I do not think that these kids need to be rushed to Cup. Once you get to Cup, that’s it. There is nothing else to look forward to, there’s nothing else to work towards and when you get there, if you’re not mentally strong enough, they will chew you up and spit you out.”
Next up is Daytona, where Love and RCR will certainly be a player. Love has a pair of superspeedway wins to his resume, while teammate Austin Hill is tied for the series record with nine superspeedway victories, all coming in the last three-and-a-half seasons.
“I feel like when I go there, I’m the favorite,” Love said of racing at Daytona. “I feel like I’m the best speedway guy in the field right now. I know I haven’t won as much as Austin, but this year, I’ve dominated the most on speedway stuff and Austin comes in there at the last second and beats me. We’re going to have another rocket and I’ll have another shot to win. I just have to maximize it the best that I can and try to get some stage wins.”