Jesse Love realizes dream with full-time Cup ride, keeps focus on defending O’Reilly title

CORONADO, Calif. -- Jesse Love is one step closer to his dream come true. The defending NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series champion was announced as Wood Brothers Racing's newest driver beginning in 2027, making the full-time leap to the NASCAR Cup Series next season. MORE: Naval Base Coronado schedule | O'Reilly Auto Parts Series standings Love has openly shared how much he has dreamt of one day competing full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series. Having the contract to bring it to life at age 21 in hand affirms all the work he and his family have poured into his journey. But as Love told NASCAR.com Friday at Naval Base Coronado, "the reality just never matches what your expectation is." "It's been great, but I think for me, I think there was less relishing in the moment than I thought there was going to be," Love said. "Just because once the deal is signed and it's announced and we come back down to Earth, you want to go months and months of just celebrating a great accomplishment like that. But then you wake up the next morning, and you're like, 'I gotta go race for a win this weekend and go race for a championship.'" Sitting second in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series standings for Richard Childress Racing, that objective remains top of mind for the Menlo Park, California, native. Love has established close bonds with his No. 2 Chevrolet. The most public of those is with crew chief Danny Stockman, but Love emphasized the impact all the men and women at RCR have had on him as he navigates his third year with the organization. "On their side, everybody's really happy for me," Love said. "And I'm like, 'thank you, I'm happy for you guys as well.' And that's not just the team, it's everybody around me. Like, I'm happy for you guys, too, because me going to Cup speaks volumes for everybody on our team and all the people around me that have supported me just as much as it does myself, even though I probably get more credit than I deserve on that front. "I think for me -- and maybe it comes off cold -- but I feel like I'm doing guys a disservice if I want to go celebrate this for the next six months, right? So I'm like, thank you, right? Let's have our conversations about it, where I can thank you guys and give you guys your flowers. And once we have a couple heart-to-heart conversations about it, then it's like, OK, now we all owe it to our each other and ourselves to get back to work and go jump in the simulator and go put our best foot forward." [caption id="attachment_515856" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]Sean Gardner | Getty Images[/caption] Love has been open about his desire to become a full-time Sunday racer. Once it became clear RCR would not be the home of his future Cup endeavors, teams began to reach out. It wasn't long before the Wood Brothers joined that group and gave Love his chance to go Cup racing. "Once the Wood Brothers opportunity came to me and I got to have conversations with the leadership at the Wood Brothers and at Penske and people like that, they made it really seamless and easy," Love said. "And they're like, 'here's the opportunity,' and it was something that I didn't need much time to think about, right? I felt like it was a great opportunity, and all the people there were amazing to work with, and that process was pretty seamless. They're all obviously the utmost professionals and first-class people. So when you're dealing with people like that, decisions are pretty easy to make." With his new contract, Love will slot into the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, one of the Cup Series' most iconic rides. He will also enter the fold at Team Penske, an affiliated teammate of Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric moving forward. Between his time at Chevrolet in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and with Toyota in ARCA competition, Love has relished the opportunity to learn from each manufacturer's top dogs. Heading to Ford in 2027, "I got every ring on my Thanos hand," working with each manufacturer currently fielding Cup cars. "The cool thing about the Ford group is that Blaney and Joey specifically, like, succeed and win, I feel like, from like drastically different philosophies as like the Chevy guys and the Toyota guys," Love said. "And I'm just excited to like try to dig into their brain and get them to tell me things and ask questions. And Joey's already been super first-class to work with, but I'm just curious to like build new awarenesses." MORE: Cup Series standings | San Diego photos Love's friendship with current Cup Series rookie Connor Zilisch has been well documented -- as have Zilisch's struggles to acclimate to the Cup Series' Next Gen vehicle. Zilisch crushed the competition in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2025, winning 10 of his 33 races, but he ultimately landed runner-up in the championship standings to none other than Love. Love has earned his fair share of titles across the ARCA Menards Series West, ARCA Menards Series and O'Reilly. Their friendship is tight, but their racing journeys have differed. Love has made seven Cup starts of his own for RCR -- five in 2025 and two in 2026, all at different track types. Zilisch had made just three before this season: two on road courses and one on an oval. "I'm aware that while my path has come with probably the most amount of championships for my age, I know that it hasn't come with necessarily sheer domination in the process of that," Love said. "Because of that, I've had to build a lot of grit, a lot of tenacity and a lot of work ethic. To say it bluntly, even though Connor's the shiny penny, in a lot of ways, I'm a lot more prepared in a lot of different areas to make this step next year." Part of that process has involved utilizing new techniques on and off the track -- even when his current approach may be working in his favor. "I've failed a lot behind the scenes throughout my career in ways that people don't necessarily see, like trying new things," Love said. "Like I've got one thing working for me, and then immediately stop doing that once it starts working to go and try something different, whether that's the mental side or the technical side, because I know what I have to do to move up. But my biggest thing for me is when I get to Cup, it's fine if people don't see it and don't know it, but have all the tools and having learned all these different things, so that when I do move up, I've not have it all figured out, but I have like every possible tool ready to figure it out and be dominant." Love is not keen on setting expectations for himself so long as he learns through the process. Understanding how difficult the transition may be resonates with him. But he is approaching his future with an open mind. "I don't know what I don't know, right?" Love said. "I'm kind of going into the whole process with no expectation other than being present in the moment and feeling reality. And then once you do that, you can go back on Monday and be conscious of what can I improve on, what can I learn from, what can I change, what do I not need to change, what's clicking. But at the day, if you're not present in the moment and you have all these like preconceived notions, you're gonna crash and burn pretty quickly doing that."