AVONDALE, Ariz. — Saturday's Xfinity Series championship race will be meaningful for Jesse Love as he contends for a title for the first time in his career. It also presents a full-circle opportunity for him considering his ties to Phoenix Raceway.
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This 1-mile track has served as the site of frustrating losses, some close calls, and a lot of education. It's also the track where he and his family came to watch races early in his life.
"I remember, you know, wanting to race for a championship here, and then, probably two years later, I was racing in ARCA," Love said during Xfinity Series Championship 4 Media Day at Phoenix Raceway.
Sitting in the grandstands of old Turns 1 and 2 helped Love build an appreciation for Phoenix Raceway. However, this didn't translate to success early in his ARCA Menards Series career.
He didn't have the full understanding of aero, and he crashed in two of his four starts. Love said back in 2023 that his final ARCA crash at Phoenix forced him to change his mindset during the race weekend. He went from not wanting to fail to just focusing on succeeding. This little difference sparked a 10-win season.
The education part of Phoenix involved two Cup drivers — one who is a member of the Hall of Fame. Love had the opportunity to reach out to Jeff Gordon and ask about aero and how it affects cars at Phoenix specifically. He also spoke to Alex Bowman frequently as he grew up.
" I mean, I've had so many great mentors, right," Love told FanBuzz. "And, yeah, it definitely is really cool that I had the connections at the time to be able to pick Jeff's ear about this race track, in particular. So, yeah, it just started my understanding of this race track at a really high level.
"I probably look at this race track different than I do other places because I've had some really good mentors kind of help me along the way. I understand this race track probably better than I do any of the other ones, with the exception of maybe one or two."
The numbers reflect this fact. Love has made three Xfinity Series starts at Phoenix Raceway, and he has posted three top-10 finishes. This includes a runner-up in his first-ever Xfinity start at the track.
He also finished sixth in last season's championship race after a three-wide incident with Riley Herbst and Justin Allgaier took him out of contention for the lead.
"I've had a lot of races here," Love said. "I'm sure I'm coming up on almost 10 races on this race track, obviously, between Truck and Xfinity, I've never ran outside of top 10 here, so that gives me some confidence to that.
"And I had to think about it the whole off-season, or really the whole year, I was a couple hundred feet away from closing out the year last year with a win here, before the caution came out. And then, obviously, Justin (Allgaier) put us in the fence after that. So, yeah, I know I can put myself in the exact same position this year."
As Love said, the stakes are much higher this time around. He is one of only four drivers in contention for the Xfinity Series championship, the final one before the series sponsor changes to O'Reilly Auto Parts.
If he can close out the weekend with a race win, he will score his first national series title. He will also come full circle at a track very close to him and his family.
