Jesse Love earned his fifth career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win with a dominant 75-point victory at Phoenix Raceway, handing him the points lead.
Sam Mayer started 35th, but finished a very close second as he brushed the back bumper of Love’s No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in a last corner lunge. At the checkered flag, there was just over a tenth between them (0.128s).
It was Phoenix one year ago where Love became a NASCAR O’Reilly champion, and on Saturday, he moved ahead in the championship by 36 points.
“The 41 [Mayer] team did a great job going from the back and making their car better,” said Love, who led 156 of 200 laps in Saturday’s race. “Honestly, it felt like they were a little better than we were at the end. I was having to just drive a lot over the tire to make any sort of lap time. So, I’ll yell at Danny [Stockman, crew chief] for not freeing me up more later, but it’s okay. I’m grateful to the good Lord above for putting great people behind me. I’m grateful to the other one for RCR, ECR. It’s been a tough year for us. I’m grateful to be in a situation to win races. I’ve got a great pit crew who just maul everybody on pit road every week. It makes my job a lot easier. I’m just proud of this whole group.”
Behind the Love-Mayer battle, Justin Allgaier finished third, Corey Day fourth, and Sammy Smith fifth. Brandon Jones, Dean Thompson, William Sawalich, Rajah Caruth, and Carson Kvapil filled out the remainder of the top ten.
Stages 1 & 2
Love led the race from pole position, and dominated the early portion of the race.
Ryan Sieg got into the back of Sanchez in the mid-field, and they narrowly avoided crashing as they both lost several positions.
Partway through the opening stage, there was a caution for light rain. With NASCAR’s new rules allowing teams to control what tire compound they wish to be on, Jones rolled the dice and put on wet-weather tires.
Creed took the lead on the restart, but Love ran him down a few laps later. Day pulled off an impressive save on the backstretch, sliding sideways and slapping the wall while battling Crews.
As for Jones, the tire gamble did not work out at all, and he fell off of the lead lap.
Love went on to win Stage 1, followed by Creed, Allgaier, Caruth, S. Smith, Mayer, Kvapil, Clements, Tay. Gray, and Day.
During the stage break, Creed suddenly lost power and needed a push back to the pits. The team lost three laps working under the hood, all but ensuring Creed wouldn’t leave Phoenix as the championship leader.
On the restart, Allgaier took the lead from Love, who continued to struggle on restarts.
Jake Finch fell off the pace with engine issues and went to the garage, but the race stayed green.
Just like the previous run, Love ran down the leader as the run progressed and reclaimed the race lead. Love swept the stages, winning Stage 2 over Allgaier, Tay. Gray, Day, Mayer, Caruth, S. Smith, Kvapil, Hill, and Thompson.
Stage 3
It was a Love-Day front row as Allgaier fell to fifth in the pits. Tay. Gray was third, but a wheel rolled out of their box and resulted in an end-of-line penalty.
Love again lost the lead on the initial restart, and behind them, the first caution for an on-track incident flew. Teammates Brennan Poole and Lavar Scott collided, and crashed along with Gray after the penalty that sent him to the back.
Finally, Love fought back on a restart and took back the lead from Day. Mayer, who had fought all the way from the rear of the field, crept up into second as they approached green-flag pit stops.
The pit stop sequence began with 48 laps to go and the leaders did not wait as other cars filed down.
Mayer was just over two seconds adrift of Love, while Crews and R. Sieg got hit with speeding penalties.
The pit stop cycle was interrupted by another spin from Poole, with Retzlaff and H. Burton leading as they had yet to pit.
Love held the lead on the restart, but he never really could get away from Mayer.
On the final lap, Mayer sent it deep into Turn 3, even hitting the rear bumper of Love’s car as he pushed up and the Love slid sideways. But that wasn’t enough as Love claimed a crucial Chase victory in the desert.
Jesse Love, No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, holds off Sam Mayer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet
Photo by: Chris Graythen – Getty Images
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