Richard Childress Racing surprisingly shut out at Talladega, leaving Jesse Love 'puzzled'

The NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series field finally defeated Richard Childress Racing in a drafting race straight up. 

Polesitter Jesse Love likely had the fastest car in Saturday's Ag-Pro 300, leading the most laps (37) of any driver in the field. But his teammate, superspeedway ace Austin Hill, led only three and was mostly a non-factor, scoring only one stage point and finishing 13th at the race's end.

Love himself was shuffled out of the lead in the closing laps and even briefly dropped outside of the top 10 before rebounding to finish seventh. He's yet to finish outside the top 10 at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. 

And while neither RCR driver finished poorly on Saturday, they didn't live up to the massive expectations placed on them this weekend, either. 

Jesse Love puzzled after Talladega

"For some reason, we didn't have a bubble on our car this weekend like we normally do," Love told CW Sports. "I feel like [Creed] didn't have a run on me, and he hit the Ricky Bobby fifth gear and drove around me. We were pretty bad in the pack for some reason. Nobody could get to my bumper and I couldn't get to theirs. I'm definitely puzzled."

Love, the defending series champion, is still winless in 2026.