Jesse Love, driver of the No. 19 NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota, celebrates his championship after the Arizona Lottery 100 for the ARCA Menards Series West at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, on Nov. 7, 2020. (Dominic Valente/ARCA Racing)
Jesse Love, driver of the No. 19 NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota, celebrates his championship after the Arizona Lottery 100 for the ARCA Menards Series West at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, on Nov. 7, 2020. (Dominic Valente/ARCA Racing)

ARCA Menards Rewind: What We Learned At Phoenix

www.arcaracing.com November 10, 2020

The 2020 ARCA Menards Series West season finale at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday was completed with a championship on the line, even though at times it didn’t feel as though that was the case.

Jesse Love’s 14-point lead over second-place Blaine Perkins in the standings entering the Arizona Lottery 100 allowed the 15-year-old rookie to employ a strategy that intentionally kept the championship leader out of mix for the race win.

After driving defensively for 100 laps, Love finished a lap down in 14th, his worst result of the season. Which was more than enough for Love to clinch the 2020 title after engine trouble ended Perkins’ race prematurely.

“If I could find a gap, I would drive forward to get to that gap,” said Love of his strategy Saturday. “Or I would just back off to get to that gap so I could just be by myself and not have to get in any dog fights or anything like that.”

RELATED: Photos from West finale at Phoenix

The approach was unusual, especially since Love said he had aimed to win more than the three West Series victories he earned in 2020. But it was effective.

It also allowed veteran racer and DGR-Crosley co-owner David Gilliland to steal the show in what became an intense battle for the win at Phoenix.

Still, the biggest takeaway was the exclamation point on Love’s debut season.

Jesse Love’s validation

Love speaks as though where he is now — an ARCA Menards Series West champion at age 15 — is exactly where he is supposed to be.

The confidence arrived in February, when the Menlo Park, California, native finished second to Sam Mayer in the West season opener at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Jesse Love, driver of the No. 19 NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota, celebrates his championship after the Arizona Lottery 100 for the ARCA Menards Series West at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, on Nov. 7, 2020. (Dominic Valente/ARCA Racing)

“One thing I was focused on with that was the people behind me who also were going to run for the West Series championship — they were really far behind me,” said Love. “So that was a good thing. Even though Sam won the race, we did take the lead from him and lead some laps and put up a challenge. But he was really good at Vegas.

“And it set a pretty good tone. Where we were compared to everybody else that was running [for] the West Series championship. And also it was our second race of the season and we also were able to lead some laps, which was a good thing, too.”

The confidence Love gained in the West opener only reinforced what already was an impressive resume before he first suited up for Bill McAnally Racing. Love had racked up victories in Quarter Midgets, Late Model, Legend Car, Midget and Sprint Car series before he even turned 15.

Which is why Love was an easy call for BMR to replace Hailie Deegan in its No. 19 NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota for 2020.

It’s also why Love’s early season success wasn’t much of a surprise.

“I wanted to win more races than I did this year,” said Love, whose three victories in 2020 came at the Utah Motorsports Campus, Irwindale Speedway and Colorado National Speedway. “I set the bar really high and I shot for the stars all year. And I knew I could be the champion, and I knew I’d have to work really hard to do that.

“But I was confident in myself and confident in the team, and I knew it was something that we were going to accomplish from the first race of the season.”

Now Love is the youngest West Series champion at 15 years, 9 months and 24 days old. Todd Gilliland previously held the record after winning the West title in 2016 at 16 years, 5 months old.

On top of winning the championship, Love ended the West season as the Bounty Rookie of the Year. He also took the General Tire Victory Bonus for winning the most races and earning the tiebreaker over Perkins. He won the Valvoline Lap Leader Award for leading the most laps this season. His series-high four poles earned him the season-long General Tire Pole Award.

Did we mention he’s still only 15?

Good signs for DGR-Crosley

The overwhelming emotion for 44-year-old race winner David Gilliland on Saturday was gratefulness. He said the opportunity to race against his son Todd, who finished fourth at Phoenix, is more rewarding than any race win or championship could be.

But this particular victory was pretty sweet for David Gilliland given the circumstances.

Gilliland said prior to the Phoenix race said he was anxious to “drive our own equipment and get a feel for what we can do to improve in the offseason to prepare for 2021.”

It must have felt good as he posted the best lap time in qualifying to earn the General Tire Pole ahead of the race. It felt even better when he battled back through the field after he was shown the black flag for jumping a late restart while leading.

In a way, Gilliland’s dramatic last-lap pass of Ty Gibbs for the win was just the cherry on top of what already was a successful day for DGR-Crosley. Fifteen-year-old Taylor Gray finished third, meaning all three of the team’s drivers finished in the top four at Phoenix.

“It really helps our program,” said Gilliland. “At DGR-Crosley, and everything we do with young kids, the Ford driver development program, a lot of these kids have really good speed and a lot of talent, but they don’t have any experience.

“So to lean on them to continue to build our program is very difficult. And then sometimes we don’t progress at the rate we’d want to. That’s why me testing or me racing these races helps.”

As if those were not enough positive vibes for Gilliland and his team, the Ford with which he won Saturday was the car DGR-Crosley built for Todd Gilliland when he won at Phoenix in 2015. The car was sold to McAnally and was fielded by BMR for a while before DGR-Crosley bought it back.

“The real reason I even raced this race was because the car,” said Gilliland after the race. “Pretty special to be able to drive our original K&N/ARCA car that we ever built as a company. To bring it back here and win with it again makes today just that much more special.

“And to win in a car that Todd won in, too, is pretty neat.”

Notes:

— Love’s championship marks the fifth in the last six years for BMR and the organizations 11th overall dating back to 1999.

— Asphalt modified veteran Keith Rocco, who earlier this year set the national record with his 18th Division I championship, made his first start in an ARCA Menards car and finished 10th driving for Venturini Motorsports. Rocco was scheduled to race at New Hampshire earlier in the season, but that race was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

— There was some international flair in the West finale at Phoenix, with three drivers from overseas in the field. Alex Sedgwick, from Brighton, England, made his series debut with Bill McAnally Racing and finished 13th. Bridget Burgess, from Brisbane, Australia, finished 22nd. Nagoya, Japan’s Takuma Koga finished 23rd.

— Gracie Trotter finished third in the final West points after her challenger and teammate Gio Scelzi crashed on Lap 2. Trotter became the first female to win a race on the ARCA Menards platform with her victory at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in September.

— Justin Lofton, the 2009 ARCA Menards Series champion, made his first stock car start since 2014 and finished sixth.

— Sam Mayer experienced his worst ARCA Menards race result after a cut left rear tire sent him into the Turn 1 wall on lap 92. He finished 21st.

— Gilliland’s last-lap pass of Gibbs marked the second time in the last three West races there was such a pass for the win. Scelzi also executed a last-lap pass on Taylor Gray to win at All-American Speedway on Oct. 23.