That is how you lay down a marker. Jesse Love took total command at Phoenix Raceway in the Timberland PRO 200, leading 156 of 200 laps and sweeping the first and second stages to bank 75 points, just one shy of the maximum.
Now, the 21-year-old from Clovis, California, finds himself sitting pretty with a 36-point advantage in the O'Reilly Series Chase presented by Mobil 1. Justin Allgaier sits second in the standings after bringing his machine home in third place, while Corey Day holds third overall, 39 points back following a fourth-place finish. Three races remain in this new nine-race format, but Love looks increasingly difficult to catch.
It was not a simple Sunday stroll, however. Over the final 35-lap green-flag run, Sam Mayer hunted down Love's No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with terrifying persistence. Mayer's charge was nothing short of brilliant given that his No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet was forced to start the race from the very back of the field after an engine change.
Gaining furiously over the last two laps, Mayer arrived right at Love's bumper coming off the final corner, missing out on the win by a razor-thin 0.128 seconds. "It felt like they were a little better than we were at the end," Love admitted after the race, praising his rival's incredible recovery. Mayer, meanwhile, was left reflecting on what might have been for his championship aspirations, noting that the numbers look rather grim for his side of the garage right now.
While the frontrunners battled, disaster struck former Chase leader Sheldon Creed. Creed had finished second to Love in the opening stage, but a sudden kill-switch malfunction during the stage break killed his Chevrolet's engine. His crew scrambled on pit road, but the stoppage cost him three laps. Creed could only salvage a 32nd-place finish two laps down through sheer attrition, sending him tumbling to fourth in the standings, now 59 points behind Love.
Further down the order, Sammy Smith crossed the line in fifth. Brandon Jones took sixth after enduring an early scare when he dropped a lap following a switch to wet tires during a brief shower in the opening stage. Dean Thompson, William Sawalich, Rajah Caruth, and Carson Kvapil rounded out the top ten in seventh through tenth respectively.
Next up, the O'Reilly Series field heads to Talladega Superspeedway for The Progress Group 250 on Oct. 24.
