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Jesse Love saves fuel, wins Xfinity Series race at Rockingham in overtime

JHby:Jonathan Howard•04/19/25•

Jondean25

Jesse Love COTA
Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

For the first time in 21 years, a winner has been crowned at Rockingham. 20-year-old Jesse Love gets it done. In front of a sold-out crowd of nearly 30,000 NASCAR fans who waited two decades for this moment, Love gets it done with barely any fuel.

Cars kept running out of fuel late in this race. This track was greasy and slick by the time the final stage was getting down to the nitty gritty. Jesse Love has won at Talladega, Daytona, and now Rockingham.

This young kid is electric in a stock car. A major win in overtime. He had to move Sammy Smith a little bit to get the job done, but all is fair in love and war – and NASCAR racing.

This race was fantastic. You had eight leaders in total. Of those eight leaders, four of them led 47 laps or more. Jesse Love led for 53 laps total and, most importantly, was leading the last lap of the race. He also had the fastest lap of the race and scored a bonus point.

Rockingham Speedway delivered. A super fast track that changed throughout the race. Drivers had their hands full with the speed, slick track, and avoiding one another all evening.

I loved that we saw drivers like Connor Zilisch run up through the field multiple times. At one point, he was two laps down and still managed to put himself in position to finish P14. He had a rough day at the track but kept overcoming adversity.

You can say the same thing about Parker Retzlaff. P3 for Alpha Prime at a non-drafting track. That is MAJOR! On top of that, Brennan Poole pulled out the P5 finish to give Alpha Prime the double top-five – again, fantastic.

This was old-school NASCAR racing. Cars that are hard to handle, a track that changes and gets more difficult to race as the laps tick away, and a healthy dose of drama.

Jesse Love gets second win of the season

When this race got into the final 100 laps, it was sloppy. Drivers couldn’t hold onto their cars, then the fuel began to run out, and it started to feel like a free-for-all. There were four cautions and two red flags in the final 30 laps of the race.

At one point, Jesse Love looked to be out of the race. He didn’t fire off very well on Lap 246 just before overtime. Luckily for him, another caution and red flag came out to send this race into overtime.

Love is going to move into second place in the Xfinity Series points standings. He passes up Sam Mayer for that spot. Get this, Justin Allgaier is still 79 points ahead for the regular season championship. But Love has two wins on the season, and there are plenty of races to go in 2025.

Once again, Ryan Sieg was right there, but came up short. He couldn’t put it together in the end and walked away with a P19 finish. Sieg led the most laps, 77, and didn’t have much to show for it in the end. That first career win has to happen at some point.

An ugly race with a satisfying ending. Jesse Love put the moves on Sammy Smith like a veteran of the sport. Smith couldn’t even be mad after the finish. Two wins on the year, and if you ask me, Love is going to command a Cup Series seat soon. RCR can make that move or someone else will make it for them.