By: Ashley McCubbin

The last time the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series was at Phoenix Raceway, it was a joyful night for Jesse Love as he made the charge on a late-race restart to capture the checkered flag in the season finale to take home the championship.

“I think I was really cool for the few weeks after the championship, but I think everybody’s different, but what I need to perform as an athlete is to kind of you know, disassociate a little bit from it now,” he told News From The Pits. “I still take the good parts of it, like the confidence that comes along with it and the belief, but kind of setting yourself back at ground 0 and just kind of restarting is also important because it keeps you hungry and helps you not get complacent. So that’s kind of mindset.

“Now I’ve definitely disassociated with the championship in a good way, but also taken the confidence and keeping that with our numbers between.”

Love will hope to capture another checkered flag after qualifying second for Saturday night’s GOVX 200.

“I am really confident going into Phoenix one of my better racetracks,” he said. “It’s a place that I have a great understanding for and have a lot of laps at, as well been coming here for probably about 5 years now and racing at some sort of level. A lot of confidence from our win and championship last year here and looking forward to the weekend. I’m excited that it’s kind of a night race, and then we’re going to go from day to night, so I’m looking forward to that as well.”

While starting up front certainly will help Love, he knows that one of the biggest challenges there is ensuring you execute on the late-race restart the dog leg in play.

“A lot of chaos on the restarts, as you’re racing the guy the row behind you as much as you’re racing the guy side by side right in front of you so I would say the restarts are is a challenging part to Phoenix,” he shared. “If you can, you know, get clear and get going about four laps in and kind of get more simple, but the restart for the first few laps is really hectic at a normal racetrack. You’re really racing the guy right next to you for the first lap or two, and then you kind of go pick them off one by one, but you can make up a lot of ground on restarts here and pick up three or four spots in one corner.”

The 2026 campaign has started off well for Love, as he currently ranks second in the standings with an average finish of sixth following a season-best fourth at Circuit of the Americas last weekend.

“It’s been good,” he commented. “Daytona probably was our worst race so far. I thought we did all the right things and unfortunately didn’t workout in the last lap, but we still got a lot of points out of it. And then yeah, Atlanta was a great showing for us there again. We were in position to win at Daytona and Atlanta and the same for COTA, we were in position to win there if some things worked out differently on restarts and with cautions and things like that.

“You don’t really know for sure until you kind of get through the next month on where you truly stack up against the field, but having said that, it’s really easy the first three races of a year to bury yourself in a big point deficit. The fact that we’ve been able to not do that is very important and good for us. As a whole, our company has done a great job, obviously with Austin (Hill) winning Daytona but also having me being in position to win Daytona and Atlanta, just as he was, and then we were both in position to win last week at COTA and our cars were really, really good. I think that we’re building on a lot of positive momentum from last year.”

Being able to start the year off strong, Love adds, is important not only just for confidence, but team morale and show you had a productive off-season.

“It’s honestly just more of anything like a shy of relief when you can go through the first month of racing and not be in big points deficit,” he added. “Because if Daytona and Talladega don’t go to plan and then you get in a wreck at COTA or have strategy not go your way, you can be pretty far back in the point by this time. So the fact that we’re not in that spot is really good for us and makes kind of the next month or so a little bit more stress-free. You’re not really behind the eight-ball; you’re kind of more playing on offence and racing with house money.”

If he can out of this weekend with a strong, run, it just helps to build the excitement in knowing he has ran well at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the past.

“(Las) Vegas next week is a track that I’ve always been really good at and I have a great understanding for and probably had the best all around car there in the fall last year and had a shot to win and we were really good in the long run,” he commented. “So I feel like going back this time is also good for us, and I think my skill set as a driver helps me run well there.”

In addition to the O’Reilly Series, Love will make a series of appearances in the NASCAR Cup Series, including a week ago at Circuit of the Americas.

“I’ve almost got to race on every type of track in the Cup Series with the exception of a super Speedway which we’ll get to do in a couple weeks with Talladega so looking forward to that,” he commented. “But I think that for me on the Cup side, it’s really hard to run well when you don’t get to do it every week and build off of it. But having said that, the good part is that I feel like I can make really good speed in the Cup car and I understand the race craft and stuff like that, but like the finishing wise is always difficult because there’s so many factors that are kind of out of your control when you’re a part-time part time guy in that deal.

“But the potential for me on the cup side with how I drive this car and how I adapt to it is really positive. So honestly, that’s kind of the only thing that I wanted to get out of it to make sure I didn’t get in it and have no idea where I was going. I always either qualify good or practice good and then have good moments in the race, regardless of where we end up.