No Love for Sanchez — or love for Love — in Xfinity finish at Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS — There was no Love for Sanchez — or any love for Love — at the end of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Jesse Love finished sixth to Nick Sanchez, who rounded out the top quintet drivers of Saturday’s race. Love walked up to Sanchez and the two had a brief scuffle before breaking away.
The drivers — Love from Richard Childress Racing and Sanchez from the technically-aligned Big Machine Racing — were at odds with each other.
“He was just mad about racing. You can’t chalk it up to anything else. We were racing for the win ultimately and he didn’t have enough but one pass here and there could’ve been it,” Sanchez said. “We work closely with them but on track, I race for my team. I race for a win and I’m not gonna sit back and watch him.”
Sanchez was blunt in his assessment of how Love raced him.
“It’s not like he was being an angel with the side drafts,” Sanchez said.
Love’s frustration stemmed from what happened before a caution late in the race. He lost the lead to Connor Zilisch on a mistake he put on himself.
“In lap traffic, I was so freaking loose… As my driver coach says, I was in a hurry to go nowhere and I give Connor clean air,” Love said. “I was still in the hunt and the 48 hindered my restart potential but when the sun went down, it took away my superpower with the lines.”
Next to Aric Almirola, no one had a better chance at winning than Love — who led three times for 22 laps and earned 17 stage points. Love came on strong late, taking the lead during green flag stops.
However, a caution with 27 laps to go and a strong pit stop by Zilisch ultimately put Love back to sixth at the finish.
All that aside, Love sits third in points, 20 points above the cutline.
“Definitely a productive day but a little bit of a missed opportunity. We had drama with the 48 which overshadowed how I lost the race myself,” Love said. “I haven’t been in as many races to get experience with that but I’ll go back and look at it.”
Love heads to Talladega where RCR has been strong. He earned his first career win in the series last spring.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com