Jesse Love toughed it out to place sixth in the Focused Health 250 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA). (Photo: John Arndt | The Podium Finish)
DEL VALLE, Texas — Jesse Love continues to elevate his craft even after Saturday’s Focused Health 250 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), a race he described as physical.
Officially starting 11th, Love dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments. The 20-year-old native of Menlo Park, California, finished 23rd in Stage 1 and 22nd in Stage 2, including some skirmishes with Sheldon Creed, his former Richard Childress Racing teammate.
With rising temperature and frustrations for Love and his competitors, the sophomore sensation had Stage 3 to refocus on the job at hand — capture the best possible finish in a difficult, taxing race.
Restarting in seventh for Stage 3, Love hovered inside the top 10, briefly dropping to eighth before taking seventh when Carson Kvapil’s right front tire went down with five laps left.
On the final lap, Love battled Taylor Gray for the sixth position, setting up the pass in Turn 1 and completing it in Turn 2. Love finished sixth, capturing his second top 10 finish of the 2025 NASCAR XFINITY Series season, remaining in second position in the championship standings to teammate Austin Hill.
Jesse Love tenaciously worked his way to place sixth at COTA. (Photo: John Arndt | The Podium Finish)
For a young driver, Love was candid about his Saturday afternoon and how his tenacity was a double-edged sword.
“Yeah, it’s a really physical race, and I feel like I kinda got my cage rattled, ” Love said. “And I know I probably rattled a few feathers too. So I’m sure some of it, I had coming to me. I don’t know. It’s just a tough race. Everybody’s going forward. And I just need to get better about it.”
When the going gets tough on the track, Love knows he has to improve with choosing his battles against his weekly competitors. After all, the war cannot be won after three races.
“When things get intense and get technical, I just need to get better at managing the race and managing my tires a little bit and not getting rattled,” he observed. “So that’ll be what I work on before the next one.
“And, yeah, I’m proud of the Whelen group, and thing was pretty good today. Just I need to get a little better myself. I made another stride today, so I just wanna keep making the strides.”
Jesse Love wants to work on being less reactive to tenuous matters in races like at COTA. (Photo: John Arndt | The Podium Finish)
Even at a young age and in relatively optimal health, Love considered how the abnormally warmer weather may have played a factor with fraying tempers on the track.
“Probably just made us more angry than everybody more than anything,” Love shared. “I mean, I feel like the temperature was just a little bit hot.”
As Love and his comrades prepare for the upcoming GOVX 200 at Phoenix Raceway, if victories are not attainable, scoring maximum points will be the objective for the No. 2 team.
“Yeah, it was a decent points day. We’ll see if we can keep those coming. Phoenix and Vegas are two good tracks for us,” he said.
