Jesse Love faced a learning curve going directly from an ARCA Menards Series championship to an Xfinity Series car this season, yet he has delivered strong performances.
As Love, a rookie in the series, points out, the team environment at Richard Childress Racing is a reason for the quick transition despite having no previous experience in an Xfinity car.
“At RCR, there’s three really good teammates that are really willing to help each other out and give you honest feedback,” Love said, referencing information provided by Austin Hill, Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch about how to best approach the Xfinity car and the variety of tracks on the schedule.
A fitting example is last month’s race at Richmond, the site of Love’s second career top-five finish.
Busch told Love to focus on the second lane, which he could use to gain speed. Hill highlighted the differences between Xfinity and ARCA cars. Dillon emphasized the importance of tire management, something Love experienced firsthand after burning through one set of right-side tires in the first 30 laps of the race.
It’s not that there was a lack of teamwork in past seasons. It was just far less evident toward the end of last season.
The Xfinity race at Martinsville saw Sheldon Creed, the former driver of the No. 2 RCR Chevrolet, and Austin Hill leading the field to the green flag on the final restart of the race. They were in control of the race with an opportunity to deliver a big moment for RCR.
The story did not play out.
The two teammates made contact multiple times over the final two laps while racing each other for the win, resulting in Hill spinning on the final turn.
Neither driver reached the Championship 4. Justin Allgaier passed them both to win the race and take the final spot.
The broadcast cameras showed Hill clapping to Creed’s crew chief after the race — not in a congratulatory manner. Team owner Richard Childress made critical comments to NBC Sports about the way Creed, who moved to Joe Gibbs Racing after the season, raced Hill.
Fast-forward to this season — the situation is significantly different. The team lineup consists of Hill, a veteran, and Love, a young driver rising through the ranks. Two championship-winning drivers — Busch and Dillon — make up the Cup lineup.
Love primarily works with Hill as they compete full-time in Xfinity together. Though he also reaches out to Busch and Dillon for advice. Love is able to text or call his teammates and ask questions about managing superspeedway races, adapting to intermediate tracks and multiple other topics.
This back-and-forth is especially beneficial considering the limited practice sessions for Love.
“It just goes back to the simulator sessions and stuff that (Love) and I do together,” Hill said. “That’s where he has to do all his learning.
“Then when we get to the race track he’s doing a really good job of watching film and doing all these things, watching the in-car (camera) and putting everything to use when he gets there.”
The preparation and collaboration aid Love as he’s gained experience in Xfinity. Hill embraces the mentor role, both away from the track and while racing for position on Saturdays.
“(Austin has) been 19 years old,” Love said. “So he has all this experience I don’t have that I can ask him and Kyle (Busch) and Austin (Dillon).
“They’ve been to all these places that I haven’t been to. I kinda learned that from my dad — it’s like ask the people that have been where you’re at before and they’ll help you out a lot.”
How do Hill and Love manage to work so well together? After all, they are both in very different places in life and hail from opposite coasts.
Love is 19 years old. He’s a young man from California. Hill is 30. He’s a husband, father and veteran racer from Georgia with 16 wins across Truck and Xfinity.
“Golfing,” Love said.
Hill agreed, while also explaining how he and Love are quite similar in their approach to roles at RCR.
“I think one thing that’s very similar with the both of us is just the drive that we have to be great,” Hill said.
“Like we want to go win every race that there is and if we don’t win, we’re both frustrated. You guys don’t see it on our Monday morning meetings, but we’re very frustrated.”
This fire to compete is not limited to the Xfinity teammates. It’s prevalent in Childress, and it runs through the executive team, crew chiefs, drivers and the rest of the employees.
Hill has celebrated two wins in the first eight races of the season. Love has won the pole three times, led 192 laps and posted five top-10 finishes.
The rookie has yet to lock himself into the playoffs with a win but the expectation is that Love will check off this goal before the end of the regular season.
But simply winning a race and reaching the playoffs is not good enough. As Hill explained, Childress is not satisfied with cars that just run top 10 each week. Childress wants championships.
This is a high bar to meet, but Hill and Love believe they can work together to accomplish this goal.
“We want us to be the top dogs,” Hill said. “We talk about it a lot when we’re in our meetings that, ‘Oh, (JR Motorsports) has this or the (Joe Gibbs Racing) cars have this or that.’
“We want to be the guys that when they go to their Monday meetings, they’re like, ‘Oh man, RCR cars, they’re just hard to beat.’”