For the love of racing: Jesse Love’s busy schedule brings him back to ARCA and Berlin Raceway

www.arcaracing.com June 15, 2023

Jesse Love likes to race.

That much has been apparent over the last month as the current ARCA Menards Series championship points leader for Venturini Motorsports found himself racing a variety of cars at tracks across the United States.

In addition to competing in the ARCA Menards Series on a full-time basis, the 18-year-old over the last month has raced an asphalt super late model, a micro sprint and a midget car. He also made his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut and raced at Circuit of the Americas as part of the Toyota GR Cup and GT4 America sports car divisions.

“It’s been great,” Love said. “Obviously running a lot of dirt stuff has been the biggest change. I’ve been doing pretty well. I was able to get my first national midget win, which was nice. I feel like I’ve been driving a little bit of everything lately.

“I think I ran something like 21 races in the last 30 days. A lot of racing, but I think it makes you better behind the wheel.”

The majority of Love’s recent schedule has been, as he implied, centered around dirt racing. He spent late May and early June racing a midget car with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series and USAC National Midget Series while also racing a non-winged micro sprint at North Carolina’s Millbridge Speedway.

He scored his first victory in a midget at Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Illinois, with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series, a moment that Love has been looking forward to for some time.

“That was probably my favorite win all year,” Love said. “It was cool to get a big win like that with a national midget racing circuit like that and at a place where there is a lot of history as well is pretty awesome. That was a big win for me.

“It just kind of signified that I can do both dirt and pavement and win in both of them.”

More recently, Love joined USAC for the full Indiana Midget Week schedule. While he didn’t win with USAC, he did set a track record at one of midget racing’s most popular race tracks, Gas City I-69 Speedway.

“It was tough,” Love said about his time spent with USAC during Indiana Midget Week. “Those guys are really good. We had our ups and downs and we were pretty good; it’s just tough not to race as much as I do and still be competitive. I was happy with that. We were fast and had a lot of speed and all that good stuff. I’m looking forward to racing more and hopefully being able to start up front more and not having to pass as many cars at the end of the night.”

Alongside his escapades on dirt, Love also made his Truck Series debut at World Wide Technology Raceway on June 3.

While his Truck Series debut was planned in advance, a late change forced Love to switch which Truck he was going to be racing. Instead of driving the No. 1 Toyota for TRICON Garage as originally scheduled, Love drove the No. 11 for TRICON while regular driver Corey Heim recovered from an illness.

The late switch created a few extra challenges for Love, but he was able to overcome them to earn a ninth-place finish in his series debut.

“I think for the situation that was given to us, I thought we succeeded really well,” Love said. “Obviously the goal is to win those races, but for the situation we did all we could. It was a challenge not being able to be comfortable in the car. I couldn’t really see over the dash that well, and I couldn’t see over my right-side headrest at all.”

Love believes the hectic schedule he has maintained in the last month will ultimately benefit him by helping him become a better race-car driver. Each track and each car, Love says, teaches him something he can carry with him going forward.

“I think everything kind of helps in different areas,” Love explained. “Like the dirt stuff I think slows down the pavement stuff to where, even at a place like Charlotte that is a really fast intermediate track, it made it feel pretty slow. It slows everything down a good bit. You go run a micro at Millbridge, and it teaches you how to run really close to the wall every lap. The road course stuff, obviously that speaks for itself. Everything doesn’t necessarily correlate but it just helps you become a better race-car driver.

“I’m not trying to be just another stock-car guy or road-course guy or whatever. I want to be a little-bit-of-everything kind of guy.”

With a busy 30-day stretch now behind him, Love’s attention returns to the ARCA Menards Series with the running of the Berlin ARCA 200 at Berlin Raceway this Saturday night.

He enters Saturday’s race not only as the championship leader, but as the winner of the last three events on the series schedule. Should he win Saturday, it would be just the 18th time in ARCA Menards Series history that a driver has won at least four consecutive races.

Love is confident that he can join that exclusive club, which includes drivers like Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Parker Kligerman, Frank Kimmel, Tim Steele, Ramo Stott, Jack Bowsher and Iggy Katona, among others.

“Obviously our cars are really fast right now,” Love said. “Berlin is not, by far, one of my best tracks, but I think with how fast our cars have been they can maybe carry me a little bit. I’m looking forward to it. I don’t really look at the record or stat books too much, but obviously it is cool to be with those names and to have a shot at making some sort of history.

“It’s always nice to leave with the trophy.”