Jesse Love disqualification: NASCAR shows off illegal suspension from Rockingham

In a continued effort to create transparency in the sport, NASCAR has shown the illegal suspension from Jesse Love’s car last week. Officials brought in the unit so that media could look at the parts and ask questions about the disqualification.

Jesse Love originally won the Rockingham Xfinity Series race last week. Then he was disqualified after postrace inspection. Richard Childress Racing appealed the ruling, but that appeal was unsuccessful, granting the win to Sammy Smith of JR Motorsports.

This week, as NASCAR has done in recent years, officials brought the illegal part. The truck trailing arm on the suspension did not meet flush with the U-bolt saddle on the U-bolt on the suspension.

Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports took video of the NASCAR demonstration. Xfinity Series Director Eric Peterson went over the issues with the parts on Jesse Love’s car and why the disqualification was issued.

“This is the left-side truck arm, the rearend housing, the U-bolt saddle, and then the lowering block right here, and then the U-bolt that holds this whole assembly together,” Peterson said, via Pockrass. “So, the rule that was violated was that all the mating surfaces between the U-bolt saddle and the truck trailing arm have to be in contact with each other at all times.”

Peterson then pivoted the assembly. It allowed him to show off the movement the trailing arm was able to make. In other words, the rear-end was able to shift, and that could possibly grant an “aerodynamic performance advantage” according to Peterson.

Xfinity Series Director Eric Peterson explains the issue on the Jesse Love car from Rockingham that resulted in the disqualification. @NASCARONFOX pic.twitter.com/AQWS24WZ6o

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 25, 2025

Pockrass also got up close to the part. He shows the gap between the U-bolt saddle and the trailing arm. That gap, even as small as it looks, could have given Jesse Love the win.

Will post more of an explanation in a minute but here is the suspension from the Jesse Love car from Rockingham and the issue with it. pic.twitter.com/I1eQxxS7bR

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 25, 2025

Jesse Love DQ – intentional or accidental?

Eric Peterson said that NASCAR is not sure if it was done intentionally or not. There are ways to make parts fail on purpose so as to pass prerace inspection and then, ideally, get through postrace without issues. NASCAR cannot determine if that was the case.

What NASCAR determined, whether intentional or accidental, is that Jesse Love’s No. 2 car had a violation. Therefore, he was disqualified. There are times when teams push the limits and it bites them in the end. This could have been one of those times.

Good news for Love, he already has a win this season. He would have loved to have his first non-drafting win, but that’s not the case here. Instead, Love will try to pick up another win at Talladega. He won his first career race a year ago in this event and is hoping to repeat.

Anyone who knows racing knows that Jesse Love is the real deal. His talent is elite and as he continues to develop that will only show more and more. He made his Cup Series debut at Bristol earlier this season and has more on the horizon.