It's First For Love at Talladega

Jesse Love went from qualifying third to win his first career Xfinity Series race at Talladega in two overtime restarts

(TALLADEGA, AL – APR 20, 2024 – RIS) Jesse Love fulfilled the promise shown with earlier events by winning the Ag-Pro 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. The rookie’s win is the third drafting race victory for Richard Childress Racing in the 2024 season.

Cloudy skies and falling temperatures changed the teams’ setups for the Ag-Pro 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway after Friday’s warmer weather for qualifying. Austin Hill and Jesse Love started on the front row for Richard Childress Racing with Hill picking the outside row and getting a push from Cole Custer to the lead. Custer eased off and Love moved to second place. Sammy Smith moved to the lead on the third lap but then Hill and the outside line moved back ahead with Hill in front.

On the final lap of the first stage, Love grabbed the lead from Hill just before Justin Allgaier spun after a light touch from Riley Herbst. Allgaier slammed head-on into a wall extension and spun back onto the track but immediately got out of the caron his own.

Josh Bilicki gained 23 spots on the track by not taking new tires but after the rest of the field cycled through the pits, he restarted back in about his original position.

Hill and Love headed the restart, with Hill leading the pack who followed in a thiree-wide scrum for position. Cole Custer took advantage of a shove from Ryan Sieg to move into the lead, using the inside lane to his advantage but then Sieg and Custer moved out to lead the race until Chandler Smith took the lead.

Hill and teammate Love moved out to the lead in a power move to the inside, with Hill battling side by side with Allmendinger for the lead approaching the final turn to give Hill his second stage win of the season and the inith race with a stage win for RCR.

A “big one” crash involving 11 cars started when a car from the inside line and a car from the outside line both moved to the middle lane, only to touch and start a chain reaction incident. Hill led until a qhick caution for debris on the back straight and Riley Herbst took the lead at the restart. Hill used the speed of the inside lane to start moving toward the lead once more, with a draft from Anthony Alfredo allowing him to tet next to Herbst and then in the lead briefly. 

Herbst, Creed, Kligerman and Love kept swapping the lead with Love heading the pack for most of the final laps of the race. Austin Hill eased his way to third behind Love and Kligerman as Herbst and Creed followed Hill. Hill dropped to the insddie line to challenge for the lead but Love blocked until Hill used the outside lane with a push from Josh Williams to take the lead until he got loose and spun in front of the field approaching the white flag to send the race into overtime with Kligerman leading Williams. Jesse Love moved to the inside of Kligerman as Williams tried to move to the outside and Kligerman got loose in tryint to block, tapped Williams and set off another multi-car crash for a second overtime restart. Approaching the next green flag, Love led Sammy Smith, Leland Honemay and Hailie Deegan with fuel becoming a deciding factor as Smith ran out of fuel and had to be pushed into the pits during the caution. 

In the top ten cars left running, only one driver has won a sseries race as Riley Herbst is the only previous winner.

Love and Honeyman led with Love moving out the the lead as Ryan Ellis spun back in the field but was able to continue without causing a yellow flag. Love, Honeyman, Gase, Poole and Herbst led the field to the white flag, with Alfredo moving up and then Brennan Poole looked high but Love held on for his first career win.

Unofficial Results: Ag-Pro 300, April 20, 2024 - Talladega Superspeedway
Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Laps, St1, St2, Tms Led, Laps Led, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status
1) 2, Jesse Love #, No. 2 WAT Chevrolet, 124, 1, 2, 5, 28, 6, 59, Running
2) 8, Riley Herbst, No. 98 Monster Energy Ford, 124, 9, 8, 3, 13, , 40, Running
3) 11, Anthony Alfredo, No. 5 Dude Wipes Chevrolet, 124, , , 1, 6, , 34, Running
4) 33, Leland Honeyman #, No. 42 Mezrano Injury Lawyers Chevrolet, 124, , , , , , 33, Running
5) 27, Brennan Poole, No. 44 CW & Sons Infrastructure Chevrolet, 124, , , , , , 32, Running
6) 10, Sheldon Creed, No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota, 124, , , , , , 31, Running
7) 29, Caesar Bacarella, No. 45 Prime Bites Chevrolet, 124, , , , , , 30, Running
8) 28, Matt DiBenedetto, No. 38 Viking Motorsports Ford, 124, , , 1, 1, , 29, Running
9) 35, Jeb Burton, No. 27 Puryear Tank Lines Chevrolet, 124, , 9, , , , 30, Running
10) 4, Cole Custer, No. 00 Haas Automation Ford, 124, 10, 10, 2, 4, , 29, Running
11) 38, Mason Massey(i), No. 14 Fan Controlled Chevrolet, 124, , , , , , 0, Running
12) 31, Hailie Deegan #, No. 15 AirBox Ford, 124, , , , , , 25, Running
13) 25, Kyle Sieg, No. 28 North Country Ford Ford, 124, , , , , , 24, Running
14) 1, Austin Hill, No. 21 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet, 124, 3, 1, 7, 41, 1, 41, Running
15) 13, Taylor Gray(i), No. 19 Operation 300 Toyota, 124, , , 1, 1, , 0, Running
16) 36, Josh Bilicki, No. 92 Insurance King Chevrolet, 124, , , , , , 21, Running
17) 24, Ryan Sieg, No. 39 Sci Aps Ford, 124, , 4, 2, 7, , 27, Running
18) 17, Joey Gase, No. 35 Fireside RV Rental Chevrolet, 124, , , , , , 19, Running
19) 14, AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet, 124, 5, 3, , , , 32, Running
20) 9, Josh Williams, No. 11 Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet, 124, , , , , , 17, Running
21) 5, Sammy Smith, No. 8 Pilot Flying J Coffee Chevrolet, 124, , , 2, 2, , 16, Running
22) 18, Shane Van Gisbergen #, No. 97 Wendy's Chevrolet, 124, 7, , 1, 1, , 19, Running
23) 26, Blaine Perkins, No. 29 Ollie's Ford, 123, , , , , , 14, Running
24) 19, David Starr, No. 66 GreenLightPP.com Chevrolet, 123, , , 1, 1, , 13, Running
25) 7, Chandler Smith, No. 81 QuickTie Toyota, 123, 4, 6, 2, 3, , 24, Running
26) 37, Ryan Ellis, No. 43 Four Loko Jungle Juice Chevrolet, 123, , , , , , 11, Running
27) 20, Kyle Weatherman, No. 91 DriveSmartWarranty.com Chevrolet, 120, , , , , , 10, DVP
28) 30, Dawson Cram #, No. 4 TeamJDMotorsports.com Chevrolet, 120, , , , , , 9, Running
29) 3, Parker Kligerman, No. 48 Spiked Lite Coolers Chevrolet, 117, 2, 7, 4, 10, , 21, Accident
30) 21, Parker Retzlaff, No. 31 EasyCare Chevrolet, 113, , , , , , 7, Ignition
31) 32, Jordan Anderson, No. 32 Bommarito Automotive Group Chevrolet, 111, , , 1, 1, , 6, Accident
32) 12, Patrick Emerling, No. 07 BIG Studio Group Chevrolet, 111, , , , , , 5, Accident
33) 23, Brandon Jones, No. 9 Menards/Criterion Appliances Chevrolet, 65, 8, 5, 1, 4, , 13, Accident
34) 6, Ryan Truex, No. 20 The Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota, 65, 6, , 1, 1, , 8, Accident
35) 22, Jeremy Clements, No. 51 One Stop/All South Electric Chevrolet, 65, , , , , , 2, Accident
36) 15, Sam Mayer, No. 1 First Bank of Alabama Chevrolet, 65, , , , , , 1, Accident
37) 34, Jeffrey Earnhardt, No. 26 ForeverLawn Toyota, 46, , , , , , 1, Engine
38) 16, Justin Allgaier, No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet, 24, , , , , , 1, Accident
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

Length: 124 Laps, 329.84 Miles
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 30 Mins, 42 Secs.
Average Speed: 131.323 MPH
Margin of Victory: 0.141 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 2, 48, 21, 81, 16, 20, 97, 9, 98, 00
Stage 2 Top 10: 21, 2, 16, 39, 9, 81, 48, 98, 27, 00

Comments: Jesse Love won the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway, his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory.

Prior to the start, the following cars dropped to the rear of the field for the reason indicated: Nos. 18, 19, 27 (unapproved adjustments). 

Failed to Qualify: (1) No. 6 Garrett Smithley.

Cautions: 6 for 28 laps;
Laps: 26-30 (No. 7 incident backstretch [None]);
52-55 (Stage 2 Conclusion [None]);
67-72 (No. 9, 51, 1, 48, 39, 20, 91, 16, 38, 42, 18 incident frontstretch [None]);
75-78 (Debris backstretch [None]);
113-117 (No. 21, 48, 5, 32, 91, 19, 07, 27, 66 incident turn 4 [92]);
119-122 (48, 2, 18, 11 incident turn 1 [39]).

Lead Changes: 34 among 16 drivers;
A. Hill 1-23;
J. Love No.  24-26;
M. DiBenedetto 27;
J. Love # 28-30;
A. Hill 31-33;
C. Custer 34-36;
R. Sieg 37-42;
C. Smith 43;
R. Truex 44;
C. Smith 45-46;
A. Hill 47-51;
J. Anderson 52;
J. Love # 53-56;
B. Jones 57-60;
R. Sieg 61;
S. Smith 62;
S. Van Gisbergen # 63;
S. Smith 64;
A. Hill 65-68;
D. Starr 69;
A. Hill 70-72;
R. Herbst 73-81;
A. Hill 82-83;
R. Herbst 84-86;
P. Kligerman 87-88;
R. Herbst 89;
P. Kligerman 90;
A. Alfredo 91-96;
P. Kligerman 97;
C. Custer 98;
T. Gray(i) 99;
J. Love # 100-110;
A. Hill 111;
P. Kligerman 112-117;
J. Love # 118-124.