2 weeks Ago By Samuel Stubbs, Yardbarker
Jesse Love wasn't born the last time the NASCAR Xfinity Series raced at the Rockingham Speedway in 2004, but he was the master of the 0.94-mile track on Saturday. In a race that featured 14 caution flags and took nearly three hours to complete, the 20-year-old from Menlo Park, California, held off Sammy Smith in NASCAR Overtime to earn his second win of 2025 and the third win of his Xfinity Series career.
The win is the first for Love at a non-drafting track. . @jesselovejr1 is rolling into victory lane at The Rock! pic.
twitter.com/sPYYdraiJq Love, along with Smith and Taylor Gray, among others, had to save fuel in the closing laps in order to stay under power at the finish. "What an incredible racetrack," Love told CW Sports.
"This racetrack is right up my alley." "I had to get it done. I couldn't really lose that one.
" Smith — who won the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize — Parker Retzlaff, Harrison Burton and Brennan Poole rounded out the top-five, with Gray, Austin Hill, Josh Williams, Jeb Burton and Daniel Dye completing the top-10. Other notable finishers included Stage 2 winner Dean Thompson in 12th, pole winner Connor Zilisch in 14th, Kasey Kahne in 15th, Carson Kvapil in 17th and Ryan Sieg in 19th. Stage 1 winner Nick Sanchez finished 32nd, while Katherine Legge finished 38th after a crash on Lap 53.
The 11th race of the 2025 Xfinity Series season will take place at Talladega Superspeedway on April 26. The Ag-Pro 300 will go green shortly after 4 p.m.
ET, with coverage on the CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Love is the defending winner of the Ag-Pro 300, while Smith won the last time the Xfinity Series raced at Talladega in October of 2024. Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024.
He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker.
