Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love was fast on Saturday. Following NASCAR’s Rockingham ruling, he secured a pole position for Talladega, eyeing redemption.
But on the final lap of the AG-Pro 300, the 20-year-old’s heroic antics to secure the lead went disastrously wrong – for him and even worse for his friend Conor Zilisch.
Jesse Love Breaks His Silence After the Awful Final Wreck-Up at ‘Dega’
It has been an emotional rollercoaster for RCR’s young gun, Jesse Love. While the past week’s Rockingham had an anti-climactic fallout owing to NASCAR’s post-race disqualification, this week’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the 2.5-mile superspeedway was more personal for Love since it involved his close pal, Zilisch.
The No.2 driver dominated the field, qualifying as the fastest and then securing a stage 1 win and ultimately ending his day with a podium finish. In addition to that, he led 50 laps in the 113-lap race and looked strong.
But a late race incident flipped the script. During the closing laps of the race, JR Motorsports’ Conor Zilisch was in the lead, but with one lap to the checkered flag, Love had to make a move.
Thanks to his teammate, Austin Hill, Love got a massive push on the outside, thus allowing him to slide down the middle lane to pass Zilisch. However, the No. 88 driver stood his ground and tried to maintain his lead. This, however, resulted in a bump on the rear left of Zilisch’s Chevy. The tiny nudge proved disastrous for the 18-year-old, who was sent nose-first into the inside wall for a vicious wreck.
Love enquired about Zilisch following the race to know about his details. According to NASCAR beat reporter Chris Knight, Love was disappointed with the last-minute fallout and is planning to reach out to Zilisch with an apology.
Knight’s tweet stated, “I’m pretty sure I wrecked my best friend. I am going to owe him an apology.” Following the race, Love explained his emotions, essentially stating that he was more frustrated at himself for wrecking his buddy rather than finishing third. He said,
“I don’t, I don’t know. I probably have to watch it a few times, but at that point, man, like all you can do is put yourself in positions at these races, and we do that, and we do it a lot, and the 21 has done it for a lot longer, so yeah, I think that there’s definitely going to be things I could have done differently. I think I’m more upset that I turned the 88 around than I ran third.”
Love also ran to the infield medical center to check up on his friend as soon as he finished Saturday’s race. Meanwhile, Love’s teammate Austin Hill secured another win, followed by Jeb Burton and Love at two and three spots, while Zilisch made it to the 27th spot.