TALLADEGA, Ala. — Jesse Love went to check on two fellow drivers after a chaotic last lap to Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. A dominant day ended in defeat for the young Richard Childress Racing talent, but he made touching base with others one of his priorities.
His first stop was a fist bump on pit road with Jeb Burton, who was to his inside in the decisive three-wide battle when the final yellow flag froze the field and ended the race. Burton’s No. 27 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet was half a car-length in front of Love’s No. 2 Chevy, but ruled to be the runner-up — just a hair behind Love’s RCR teammate, Austin Hill in the No. 21 Chevrolet.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Talladega
Love’s second stop was the infield care center, where his friend and fellow competitor Connor Zilisch ended up after their final-lap contact sent the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevy sliding out of the lead and hard into the inside retaining wall. Zilisch exited his car gingerly after the heavy impact, but he was evaluated and released from the infield care center.
Love’s ultimate stop was in third place in Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300, an afternoon showdown where he led a race-best 50 of the 113 laps. It was in this race last year that Love scored his first Xfinity Series victory, and his defense of that win nearly brought a measure of redemption after an apparent triumph last weekend at Rockingham Speedway was overturned by a technical violation.
Alongside Burton, he waited for the official ruling from the scorers’ tower, but that decision relegated him to the last step on the podium.
“I don’t know, I probably have to watch it a few times,” Love said, “but at that point, man, like all you can do is put yourself in position 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. Just a bummer on that part, but I still feel really proud of our guys. We ran a really good race today and were up front. I feel like as much as you can dominate these things, we dominated as much as we could.”
Love and Zilisch had parried hard near the front of the pack as the final stage drew to a close, and Zilisch shucked Love out of line in an especially tense contest with 22 laps to go. In the last five laps, Love’s No. 2 tried to find momentum in the top lane, racing three- and four-wide at times and eventually closing to Zilisch’s back bumper after the white flag. When Love dipped low, Zilisch went to block, and the two tangled.
WATCH: Zilisch details last-lap incident | Burton on runner-up
Zilisch walked out of the infield care center, saying he was grateful to be OK and that his X-rays were all clear, but that he’d be sore in the coming days. He said he’d seen one replay of their encounter, and that he was trying to keep Love in his mirror. In retrospect, Zilisch said he could have opted not to block Love’s charge, but he was most appreciative of his friend’s visit to check on him.
“He was crying in there. He just wanted to make sure I was OK,” Zilisch said. “He doesn’t want to hurt his best friend, and I wouldn’t want to do that to him. I’m grateful to have someone like Jesse, who we race hard on the race track, but we care about each other off the track.”
Burton was also emotional post-race after coming just inches away from his third Xfinity Series victory, which would have matched his previous Talladega triumphs in this race from 2021 and 2023. The 32-year-old journeyman had pumped his fist inside his car on the cool-down lap, thinking he had prevailed. Afterward, his voice cracked in post-race interviews, and he was consoled by family, including Ward, his father.
“I’m just frustrated because we don’t have a ton of opportunities to win, and these are the tracks that we can win at,” Burton said. “My guys did a great job all day, brought us a fast race car, and we did all we could, and I feel like the angles I keep seeing, we won the race, but maybe there’s a different angle that I haven’t seen, but before we leave here today, I’m definitely going to see proof.”
The day marked the end of an eventful week for Love, who went from Rockingham’s Victory Lane to a disqualification, absorbed a Wednesday loss for his team in a penalty appeal hearing and then crested to the pole position in Friday’s qualifying at the 2.66-mile track. Saturday’s performance wasn’t quite the winning outcome the No. 2 RCR team was after, but it provided some comfort in knowing that the speed and the persistence were there.
MORE: Weekend schedule | Xfinity Series standings
“It’s been pretty stressful, you know,” No. 2 crew chief Danny Stockman told NASCAR.com. “It’s pretty bad heartache, to be honest with you, after last week, and it was hard. It was a tough week on me — mentally, personally — when you have a car as good as we did last week, and it kind of just gets taken away from you, that hurts pretty bad. So these guys been working their butts off. We’ve been working a lot of hours, and we’re trying to be to where we can dominate races, and I think we’re headed in the right direction.”