There are two things Jesse Love hasn’t experienced much since winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix Raceway in November.
winter off season
“I’ve only had about 15 days of cold weather in North Carolina over the past few months,” Love told Motorsport.com this week at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals. “We went to Australia and now it’s the Chili Bowl and some family vacations. It’s been pretty busy.”
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Within weeks of winning the title, Love traveled to Australia to drive a Super2 car in the Repco Supercars Championship in Adelaide. November is indeed summer on the other side of the world.
After spending time at the beach near the equator and now spending most of his week indoors in Tulsa, Love has managed to avoid winter and the off-season for the past two months. There is much to celebrate.
“It’s pretty cool,” Love said. “To be honest, my crew were all young and (crew chief Danny) Stockman was pretty nervous, so the celebrations were up to par – it was a really good time.
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“It was great to stay in Arizona after the season, not having to travel and being able to continue celebrating in the moment. But since we left, I haven’t had time to reflect too much at all because I’ve been so busy.”
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He said he has begun to consider the possibility of additional pressure this season, but added it would not change his work ethic. He hopes to win the road race this year and continue to develop into a more comprehensive driving job.
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“I still think Connor (Zilisch) and Sean (Van Gisbergen) are going to be in our road races, that’s the measure,” he said. “It’s nice for them to see how far I’ve come.”
Love particularly enjoys driving Super2 cars because he said he is a long-term fan of supercars, and the second-level group is basically the car used at the highest level of the previous generation.
“I love it from a historical perspective,” he said. “I don’t dwell on things like this very often, but I do think about how those cars that Shane drove made him so good. I think I learned some tricks that weekend. It was challenging, but I think it made me a better road racer during the Xfinity season.”
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But before he returns to what is now the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Love returns to the Chili Bowl after a one-year hiatus, but in the car of crew chief Blake Harris in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team.
In Harris’ case, he comes from a long-time dirt racing family, and the car was purchased from Alex Bowman and partially built at Hendrick Motorsports. This collaboration came about because Love and Bowman are both part of the Josh Wise Hendrick Fitness Program. Bowman told Love that Harris needed a driver and arranged to be contacted.
He’s only played in the building once in the past three years, but he said things came back to him quickly during Sunday’s practice.
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“I was kind of caught off guard at first, but I didn’t expect to feel so comfortable so quickly, and I don’t know if it was their setup or what, but I felt really comfortable in the car,” Love said. “That’s the positive side.
“I knew Alex’s cars, the way they looked when they were rolling at high speeds, I expected them to feel different than a Keith Kunz or Chad Boat car, but I was just particularly surprised and didn’t think we needed to make that many adjustments.
“No matter how the track develops, we just have to keep up with it.”
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Love moved from Wednesday to Friday because he felt it was an easier path to qualify for the feature.
“So, if things go well on Friday, I don’t see why we can’t do well on Saturday and compete,” Love said. “That’s what I’m thinking right now. We’ll have to see how things go on Friday, but I just don’t want to make my life more difficult than it was on Wednesday because after being away from midgets for so long…
“My expectations are to drive the car really hard and make the right decisions. If I do that, I think we can race. But I’m also very aware that I’m racing against guys who come here every year and race at USAC all season long, so it would be a little weird to tell you that I expect to be in the top five in Saturday’s race.
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“It can happen, that’s what we’re aiming for, but it depends on us executing and getting a good draw, all those little things that need to happen here.”
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