Jesse Love won Saturday evening’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Phoenix Raceway, scoring his second victory of the 2026 season and in The Chase presented by Mobil 1.
The No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driver dominated at the Arizona 1-mile oval, pocketing 75 points after sweeping the stages and collecting the checkered flag. It didn’t come without a challenge at the finish, though, as Sam Mayer gave Love a fight in the closing laps – only coming up short by 0.128 seconds.
With the victory, Love unofficially took the O’Reilly points lead and holds a 36-point advantage over Justin Allgaier. Love is the defending series champion.
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Allgaier, Corey Day and Sammy Smith completed the top five at Phoenix. Brandon Jones, Dean Thompson, William Sawalich, Rajah Caruth and Carson Kvapil rounded out the top 10.
Saturday’s race had major championship implications early on as Sheldon Creed, who entered Phoenix with a two-point lead over Love, suffered a mechanical issue that caused the No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet to lose power during the Stage 1 caution.
Creed returned to the race multiple laps down and finished 32nd. He did finish second in the opening stage to collect an additional nine points on the day, but dropped down to fourth in the standings, unofficially 59 points down to Love.
Just three races remain in the O’Reilly Chase, and the series shifts to the wild card of Talladega Superspeedway next Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, The CW, ESPN Unlimited, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
This story will be updated.