Jesse Love, the driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet Camaro, has had an electric start to his NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie campaign. But even with how many laps he had led (191) going into Saturday’s race at Phoenix Raceway, and the Stage Wins (3) that he had accumulated, Love had yet to finish a race this season as the highest-finishing Rookie of the Year contender.
The native of Menlo Park, California took care of that problem Saturday at Phoenix Raceway with a career-best runner-up finish in the Call811.com Every Dig. Every Time. 200.
RELATED: 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year Standings
While Love, who started from the seventh position, didn’t add any laps led to his season total in the race, he had a very solid race overall, and he was able to steer clear of a 12-car melee late in the race to put himself in position for a top finish in the closing laps of the race.
As Justin Allgaier cut a tire and backed hard into the outside wall from the lead with five laps to go, it gave Love a chance to fight for a win in overtime. In the end, he settled for a second-place finish. It was a good finish, but being so close — yet again — to his first win was disappointing for Love.
“It stings to finish second and be that close to winning,” Love said.
Love continued, “I hate running second as much as anybody, but at the same time, I’m proud of my Richard Childress Racing team. They gave me a fantastic Whelen Chevrolet today at Phoenix Raceway. We weren’t phenomenal to start the day. We needed to work on it. Danny Stockman made some good adjustments to the Whelen Camaro and my pit crew did great all day. I needed a little bit more at the end. Eventually, I’ll be able to do some of that restart magic again like I was back in my hay day in the ARCA Menards Series. It still stings even though I am happy with how we did.”
While it hurt, the second-place finish was enough for the 19-year-old to add 39 points to his season total, which extended his point lead in the Rookie of the Year race to 44 markers over Shane van Gisbergen.
It was an impressive day, but while Love carried the banner for the 2024 Rookie of the Year class at Phoenix, he wasn’t the only Rookie of the Year contender to turn in a great finish on Saturday.
Shane van Gisbergen Continues to Impress on Ovals
Shane van Gisbergen may have lost eight points to Love in the Rookie standings, but he had a great day in his own right as he scored a sixth-place finish.
SVG started the race from the 23rd position, and for the majority of the event, the driver of the No. 97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet Camaro wasa 15th to 20th-place car. However, chaos down the stretch allowed SVG to work his way into a position to grab an eye-opening result.
The Supercars legend, who won in his NASCAR Cup Series debut last season in the Chicago Street Course, moved to the United States to persue NASCAR full-time in 2024. While the 34-year-old is very comfortable around road courses, many expected the New Zealander to struggle out of the gates on the ovals.
That simply hasn’t been the case.
SVG’s sixth-place effort marks his second top-10 finish through the opening four races of his rookie season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The racer also notched a 12th-place finish in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway.
If you remove the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he finished 37th after suffering an engine failure, SVG has an average finish of 7.0 this season. That’s pretty damn sporty, and he should continue to improve as the season rolls on.
Leland Honeyman Turns in Career-Best Finish — Again
While many will fixate on the performances turned in by Love and van Gisbergen at Phoenix, don’t sleep on the rookie contender, who pilots the No. 42 Young’s Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro – Leland Honeyman.
The 19-year-old scored an 11th-place finish at his home track this weekend, and the finish amounted to his career-best finish. It’s the third-consecutive race weekend that the Phoenix, AZ native has recorded his career-best finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series as he finished 21st at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and 18th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Honeyman now finds himself 20th in the NASCAR Xfinity Series driver standings, which is made even more impressive when you factor in that the Young’s Motorsports NASCAR Xfinity Series program didn’t even exist a few months ago.
The start up Xfinity Series program is thriving out of the box with the rookie racer, who only had eight NASCAR Xfinity Series starts under his belt heading into this season. Like, SVG, Honeyman should only get better as he continues to pile experience on this season.
