BRISTOL, Tenn – Two thousand laps.
In preparation for his Cup Series debut Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Jesse Love quadrupled the scheduled 500-lapper on the simulator leading up to the Thunder Valley trek.
The 20-year-old Californian hit the number to challenge his physical and mental capabilities before climbing into the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet for the first time.
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“Just ran a lot of laps, trying different things,” Love said in his Saturday morning media availability at Bristol. “One thing I did this week was run one or two 500-lap races by myself on iRacing just to kind of condition myself to the mental drain it’s gonna take to run 500 laps. Obviously, it will be the longest race in my life so this is gonna be different for me in a lot of ways.
“I feel like the fitness side of it is gonna be fine. Obviously, had to step up my game leading up to this race a little bit. But more importantly, I feel like getting the mental side of it squared away.”
Love added that he’s felt he could race “a little bit longer” after every Xfinity Series race this season – a testament to where his physical fitness currently is.
With two-time premier series champ Kyle Busch being a part of the RCR organization, Love has been able to lean on the 20-year Cup veteran and 22-time Bristol national series winner in the build-up for his first Sunday run.
“It’d be dumb of me to not go ask some questions and pick his brain whenever I can,” Love said. “He’s been helpful, for sure, and I always feel like Kyle’s been an open book. I will say Kyle’s probably the toughest competitor in the garage. I do know it’s a little bit different so I’m asking him questions when I’m not racing against him, but I am racing against him, right? Then we ask a lot of people questions. I’m really close with all the Cup drivers on the Front Row [Motorsports] side of things like Todd [Gilliland], Zane [Smith] and Noah [Gragson], and even ask the questions like, ‘what’s your procedure getting in the pit box?’ Again, I just go into neutral when I come to my pit stall because we’re an H-pattern. Never had to deal with a sequential shifter, so that was interesting.”
There’s some sentimental attachment to Bristol for Love as he described the feelings on the windy climb through the Tennessee Valley Divide.
“I was driving up here and kind of got all my emotion out on the way up here,” Love said. “Driving up here is very mountainous and it was like driving to Baylands [northern California], which is where I grew up racing quarter midgets. So that was a pretty cool emotional experience for me. When I was five, six, eight years old, running quarter midgets with my dad driving up this windy path, one-lane road up to the go-kart track, and then now doing the same kind of thing for a Cup race. That was a really cool full-circle moment for me.”
As the weekend rolls along, the emotions and realization of a stock-car racer’s dream will set in for Love the closer Sunday’s green flag approaches. But for now, the young prospect is as stoic and poised as if he’s been a multiyear Cup veteran.
“I feel like once I got all that out, I feel like I have a little more clear head,” Love said. “There’s been so many sacrifices from my friends and my family, and even myself throughout the whole career to have a chance to race on a Sunday and that day’s come. All the emotions are real and they’re valid and still a really cool thing. But because I’m kind of present in the moment and understanding of trying to keep those emotions in check and not get too wrapped up in the moment, I feel like I’m pretty calm going into this weekend. Don’t have a lot of expectations. All expectations I have is that I execute what the car is capable of and what I’m capable of, and I think if we do that, we can have a good show.”