As Connor Zilisch roasted the tires off of the No. 1 Chevrolet, his best friend sat motionless inside the No. 2 Chevrolet. Jesse Love dealt with the pain of a last-second loss at Watkins Glen International.
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The defending O'Reilly Auto Parts Series champion had control of the Saturday evening race at the New York road course after capitalizing on his fuel strategy and watching Zilisch damage his car with a trip through the grass.
However, he did not close out the race and secure the win. He made a mistake and over-cooked his entry into the final turn.
This opened up the opportunity for Zilisch to pass him in the final turn and win the drag race back to the finish line. Instead of celebrating his first win of the season, Love watched as Zilisch won his third consecutive race at Watkins Glen International.
CONNOR ZILISCH WINS AT WATKINS GLEN IN AN INCREDIBLE LAST-LAP BATTLE! pic.twitter.com/ULRAq0skcS
— NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts (@NASCAROReillyAP) May 9, 2026
"When you really nickel and dime it, right, there is a hundred little small mistakes, right, that let him get close," an emotional Love told CW Sports' Dillon Welch. "At the end of the day, the glaring piece of it is I had a bad corner. I had a bad corner. Yeah."
Love started to discuss how this was a good learning experience for him considering that he had never saved fuel before, but he stopped talking. He had to fight back his tears while continuing this interview.
"What a good mental challenge for me," Love said after taking a long pause. "I mean, all I want to do is beat Connor here, right. We're best friends and we've caused each other a lot of pain, and I didn't execute when I needed to.
"I think the reason I'm so quiet is I'm just embarrassed. As a driver, you can't make those mistakes. It was such a bad mistake, it's just embarrassing. I know I'll learn from this and be better because of it, but I let down a lot of people, including myself, most importantly."
This battle between Love and Zilisch partially repeated history. Three years ago, the two drivers competed at Watkins Glen International in an ARCA Menards Series race. Zilisch dominated by leading 34 of the 42 laps, but Love took the lead on the final turn. He scored the win, his eighth in a 10-win season.
The roles reversed during the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Watkins Glen. This time, Love ended up dealing with what he described as the worst pain he's ever experienced.
Yet, he still made a point to go to victory lane so that he could hug Connor Zilisch and congratulate his best friend on the win.
Fierce competitors on the track.
Best friends off of it. pic.twitter.com/pPoTIbQmaM
— NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts (@NASCAROReillyAP) May 9, 2026
