Jesse Love scored his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory Saturday night at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
The rookie driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing saved enough fuel amid two overtime restarts to hold off the likes of Riley Herbst and a handful of fellow competitors seeking their maiden victories.
Herbst rallied on the final lap to finish second in his No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
“We kind of know that we’ve lacked a little bit on the plate tracks to the RCR cars, and I felt like we’re as good as them now. I felt like we could beat them, but it was a weird race. It’s kind of been an up and down start to the year, but I’m proud of everybody on this 98 team for sticking with me,” Herbst said.
Anthony Alfredo, Leland Honeyman and Brennan Poole rounded out the top five. Sheldon Creed, Caesar Bacarella, Matt DiBenedetto, Jeb Burton and Cole Custer completed the top 10.
It was Custer’s seventh consecutive top-10 finish.
“We led some laps and I think the Fords worked pretty well together. That’s one of the fastest speedway cars I’ve ever had, so that was a lot to hang our hats on. We just need to find that last little bit. It was gonna be within our reach to try and win, but we just started stumbling on gas,” Custer said.
Once again at Talladega, luck was on the wrong side for Austin Hill.
After leading a race-high 41 laps and winning stage two, the No. 21 Chevrolet spun from the lead with two laps to go after contact with Kligerman. Hill remained in the race and recovered to a 14th-place finish.
After cutting a tire and falling a lap down late in the race, Ryan Sieg got back on the lead lap after Hill’s wreck with two to go.
Sieg was able to pass AJ Allmendinger before the checkered flag to claim the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus.
Love, Herbst, Alfredo and Sieg will compete for the next prize at Dover Motor Speedway.