Jesse Love Felt Comfortable in Cup Car; Finishes 31st in Debut

At 20 years old, Jesse Love has a long runway ahead of him in his prospective NASCAR Cup Series career, but on Sunday in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, he checked off an important box as he competed in his series debut.

While he impressed more during his 19th-place qualifying run on Saturday than he did during his 31st-place showing in Sunday's race, the California native made it to the end of the race, and completed all but five of the 500 laps contested in the event.

For a young driver trying to tune themselves up for a hopeful transition to the NASCAR Cup Series ranks, logging laps and finding comfort in the drastically different Next Gen car is very important. Love was able to cross off both achievements in his debut NASCAR Cup Series start despite suffering from an ill-handling No. 33 C4 Ultimate Energy Chevrolet.

"I thought our pace was decent. I was just too tight all day, all weekend, really in kind of all the cars I drove," Love explained in a post-race interview with Frontstretch. "So, we had that going against us, but still, around other cars, I feel like I could run quick lap times and all of that stuff. It was a lot of fun, and I feel I was comfortable in it, and I think that was what was most important for me to feel today."

Love assumed, as just about everybody in the race did, that Sunday's event would feature drastic tire wear as tires were lasting roughly 40 laps in practice on Saturday afternoon. However, the lack of cloud cover on Sunday led to higher track surface temperatures, which allowed the track to take tire rubber, which led to less tire wear.

The young racer admits incorrectly expecting tire disaster early in the race bit him.

"That's what screwed me, I thought it was going to be a tire race, and then I went a lap down trying not to blow a right front, and it was pretty much fine," Love explained.

In the final Stage of the race, Love was riding in the 33rd position, when he experienced a corded tire on the next to last run of the race. This sent him skidding down the running order, and after his final pit stop of the race, he found himself in 36th.

It was at this point that you could sense the confidence growing for the young racer. Over the final 142 laps of the race, Love put in his most consistent drive of the afternoon, and he methodically worked his way back up to the 31st position, where he was scored when the checkered flag flew.

Sure, he didn't set the world on fire, but Love didn't make any major mistakes, and more importantly, he didn't stick out like a sore thumb in his NASCAR Cup Series debut.

While Love and Richard Childress Racing haven't announced any additional NASCAR Cup Series starts for the driver, it's expected that Love will compete in multiple NASCAR Cup Series events this season while competing for the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.

Recommended Articles