Jesse Love’s success in the ARCA Menards Series West at age 15 might come as a surprise to some given his youth.
Yet the racing resume the Menlo Park, California, native packed ahead of his rookie ARCA Menards season is why others are not shocked to see Love take not only Bounty Rookie of the Year honors, but also the West Series championship in 2020.
AWARDS: ARCA Menards Series Virtual Championship Celebration
Shortly after he won the fifth West title for Bill McAnally Racing in six years, Love said he hoped he would no longer be recognized as simply the guy who was driving the No. 19 BMR Toyota vacated by Hailie Deegan.
“I think now it’s, ‘This is Jesse Love, and he’s driving the 19 car,’” he said.
Love’s 2020 ARCA Menards Series West championship is the product of a season that yielded a series-high three wins. It was his second-place finish in the opener at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, though, that established the confidence the rookie needed.
“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 of finishing second to Sam Mayer. “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.”
After Las Vegas, Love won two of the next three West races. And he didn’t finish worse than fourth until the penultimate race of the season, an eighth-place result at Kern County Raceway Park in Bakersfield, California.
RACING REFERENCE:
The results of that race set the stage for the West season finale at Phoenix Raceway. Only Blaine Perkins would have a chance to catch Love in the championship standings, and the gap was a large-but-not-insurmountable 14 points.
That was more than enough for Love to literally coast to the championship, especially after Perkins experienced engine trouble and dropped out of the race on Lap 67.
Way to go C H A M P I O N 🏆🌵@jesselovejr1 | @ARCA_Racing pic.twitter.com/jysOD8JZnh
— Phoenix Raceway (@phoenixraceway) November 7, 2020
“I just knew when the race started I had to control everything I could control,” said Love of his approach to the finale at Phoenix. “Kind of put my pride aside and just try to race the nine car and not put myself in any situations. If I could find a gap, I would drive forward to get to that gap, 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.
“Had to be smart about it. It was killing me. I wish I could have been more aggressive, been able to race really hard. But one of those deals, but obviously it’s cool. Paid off in a championship.”
MORE WEST SERIES:
A championship, yes, in addition to the rest of the yearlong awards for the ARCA Menards Series West. Love took the Bounty Rookie Challenge over BMR teammate Gracie Trotter. He also won the General Tire Victory Bonus and the seasonlong General Tire Pole Award for the West Series in 2020.
He became both the youngest Bounty Rookie of the Year and the youngest champion in West Series history.
Not too shabby for a 15-year-old cutting his teeth in ARCA Menards racing.
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