Appeals panel upholds decision on Jesse Love disqualification from Rockingham

An appeals panel has upheld the disqualification of Jesse Love from Rockingham. The organization announced the news on Thursday, according to a report by Dustin Long of NBC Sports.

While the ruling didn’t come with 100% certainty, using a more likely than not standard, the panel determined there was a violation. Long quoted the decision:

“The panel finds that it is more likely than not that there was a violation … The panel was unable to determine whether the violation was intentional or unintentional.”

In a post-race inspection, Jesse Love was found to have a rear suspension violation. That made Sammy Smith the Rockingham winner.

Richard Childress Racing had noted it would appeal the decision. It lost the appeal. It commented following the ruling in a statement released via Twitter.

“RCR is disappointed in NASCAR’s decision today to uphold the disqualification of the No. 2 team. We will focus our efforts on moving forward and being competitive at Talladega this weekend.”

With the truck trailing arm allegedly not in contact with the U-bolt saddle in the rear suspension, NASCAR disqualified Jesse Love. He drove to a fuel-saving win in overtime as the field began to fall apart from attrition, running out of gas.

The disqualification was a big blow to Love. It took away his only non-drafting track win in the Xfinity Series.

Jesse Love drops in points after DQ

Instead of moving up to second in the Xfinity Series point standings after a win at Rockingham, Jesse Love dropped after a DQ. He went from third to fourth. But he’s only 10 points from dropping to ninth.

The battle for the regular season championship is already starting to get out of control. Justin Allgaier has an 87-point lead over second-place Sam Mayer. He is 100 points over Austin Hill in third. Love is now 124 points off of Allgaier.

For reference, William Byron has only a 30-point lead on Denny Hamlin in the Cup Series. You have to go all the way back to 9th and 10th place to find drivers 100+ points back. Corey Heim only has a 22-point lead on Chandler Smith in Truck Series. Again, 10th place is how far back you have to go to find drivers 100+ points down to the points leader.

Bottom line: Jesse Love took a considerable blow with the original ruling. And now it has been upheld.

On3’s Jonathan Howard also contributed to this report.