Jesse Love admits to being ‘surprised’ by running out of fuel before teammate Austin Hill

Xfinity Series driver Jesse Love was left confused after he ran out of fuel during Saturday’s Xfinity Series playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway. He was on the same pit strategy as the leaders, as well as his Richard Childress Racing teammate, Austin Hill. But only Love had to get a refuel.

The race, which was coming down to a duel between the two teammates, crowned Hill the winner. Meanwhile, Jesse Love had to settle for a top-10 finish, his 21st this season.

For some reason that’s still not clear to Love himself, the Menlo Park, California, native ran out of fuel before his teammate. However, it didn’t shake Love’s faith in his team or his crew chief, Danny Stockman. Speaking with journalist Matt Weaver after the 94-lap event, the driver said (1:00),

“Obviously, Austin just belt-to-ass’d us. But other than that, you know, I feel like we had a really good day and made the right call. I have a lot of faith in Danny’s pit calls, and I’m definitely shocked. Like, I’m definitely surprised I was running out.”

Love thought it might have happened due to a carburettor issue, or perhaps it was just because of how much fuel he was saving all day. But he knew that he had never saved that much fuel in his life.

“That car was so fast in the draft,” Jesse Love continued. “So, definitely surprised and we’ll look at it, but we did a good job today, kind of just managing possible damage.”

After the conclusion of the race the young racing phenom sits third in the playoff standings with a 40-point cushion on the cutoff line. Next up for Love is the IAA and Ritchie Bros. 250 at Martinsville Speedway, scheduled for October 25.

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Jesse Love records an impressive three-peat at Talladega Superspeedway

Jesse Love entered the United Rentals 250 at Talladega as the polesitter. For the 20-year-old driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevy, it marked his fourth pole of the 2025 season. Turning a fast lap of 52.605 seconds (182.036 mph), Love bagged what was his third straight pole at the iconic 2.66-mile racetrack.

Per reports, Love’s car was the last to hit the track during the final round of qualifying. Still, he was able to outrun William Sawalich by 0.097 seconds for the starting spot. Rounding off the top five starting spots were Christian Eckes, Carson Kvapil, and Austin Hill.

“Obviously, we’ve got a couple of Welcome [North Carolina, the location of the RCR campus] cars up front, so just use that to our advantage,” Jesse Love told CW. “Our car is as fast as Xfinity Mobile, that always helps, the track position makes it a little bit easier for the first few laps, have a couple less gray hairs by the end of it.”

Now the focus is primarily on Phoenix Raceway, following which the NASCAR Xfinity Series will crown its 2025 champion. The Championship race, which is scheduled for November 1, will stream live on CW (7:30 pm ET) with exclusive radio updates on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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Edited by Tushhita Barua