NOTEBOOK: Loaded Phoenix Field Gives West Finale Familiar Feel Of Unfamiliarity

As Jesse Love enters the last race of the 2020 ARCA Menards Series West season with a 14-point lead over Blaine Perkins in the championship standings, he says his strategy is simple: Run his race. Repeat what he’s done all season to put himself in this position.

The only issue for the 15-year-old Love is the Arizona Lottery 100 is not your typical West Series race.

A stacked field of 27 cars for Saturday’s event is good news for the 20-year-old Perkins as he tries to erase Love’s points lead. It’s also good news for the competition factor in what historically has been a race loaded with talent.

RELATED: Points scenarios for West championship

The West Series finale at Phoenix over the last decade has produced top five finishers in the likes of William Byron, Cole Custer, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Michael Waltrip and Ty Dillon. This race tends to attract a wide variety of competitors beyond West Series regulars, and the 2020 edition is no different.

Venturini Motorsports will compete in its third West race of the season and field three cars, including ARCA Menards regulars Drew Dollar and Corey Heim. The third entry is Keith Rocco, who will be making his ARCA Menards debut after breaking the national record this year with 18 Division I championships. He originally was scheduled to make his ARCA Menards debut at New Hampshire Motor Speedway earlier this year before that race was canceled.

Love’s Bill McAnally Racing team will field a fourth car in Saturday’s race at Phoenix. The driver is NASCAR Euro Series competitor Alex Sedgwick, who will be making his first start in the United States.

Both David and Todd Gilliland will join Taylor Gray to form a trio of DGR-Crosley cars in the race.

NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series championship finalist Zane Smith will run the West race for Steve McGowan.

This year’s ARCA Menards Series East and Sioux Chief Showdown champion Sam Mayer is in the mix.

So is Ty Gibbs, the rookie who finished second to Mayer in both series standings.

The 2009 ARCA Menards Series champion Justin Lofton will run a West race for the first time since 2007.

Sports car ace Kris Wright is back in an ARCA Menards car for Chad Bryant Racing.

Per usual, the field for the West finale at Phoenix is loaded. Which has a chance to impact the final championship standings.

Love vs. Perkins for the title

For Love, Saturday’s race is all about staying out of trouble and defending his somewhat comfortable points lead. He’ll only aim to win the race if Perkins experiences trouble and, therefore, ends the title race.

For Perkins, Saturday’s race is about winning. He can’t concern himself with the points scenarios.

For both, the key is not to worry about what they can’t control on such a unique one-mile oval surrounded by drivers they’re not used to battling in the West Series.

“There’s no reason to stress about things you can’t control,” said Love. “At the end of the day, you kind of gotta just have faith in the man above and have faith in your abilities and have faith in your team in general. That’s pretty much all you can do at the end of the day.”

Added Perkins: “We know what we have to do going into the weekend. It’s kind of a win or go home type situation. I’ve got confidence in my guys. Got the car and capabilities we’ve worked on throughout the year, and coming to Phoenix, anything can happen.”

Love needs to finish eighth or better Saturday to clinch the championship regardless of how many points Perkins collects. A ninth-place finish for Love would open the door for Perkins to take a tiebreaker should the latter win the race in addition to collecting the three bonus points available for the General Tire Pole, leading a lap and the most laps led.

Perkins needs to finish 15th or better to give himself a chance to win the title should Love slip. Or, if he fails to gain any of the three bonus points, Perkins needs to finish 12th or better to give himself the same chance.

Here are the scenarios 👀 pic.twitter.com/vNqnql0gnI

— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) November 5, 2020

And more:

• Should Love win the title, he would become the youngest West champion in history at 15 years, 9 months and 24 days old. When Todd Gilliland won the West title in 2016, he was the youngest champion in series history at 16 years, 5 months old.
• Just 12 points separate Gracie Trotter, Gio Scelzi and Trevor Huddleston for third through fifth in the West points standings entering the season finale.
• Howie DiSavino III will run his fourth ARCA Menards race of the year for Win-Tron Racing.
• Chris Hacker will make his ARCA Menards debut at Phoenix. Hacker races with a brachial plexus injury to his left arm sustained during birth that limits his range of motion.