Jesse Love barely holds off Sam Mayer for NASCAR O'Reilly win at Phoenix

Despite a last-lap lunge from Sam Mayer, Love held on to take the victory and a commanding championship lead

Jesse Love earned his fifth career NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series win with a dominant 75-point victory at Phoenix Raceway, handing him the points lead.

Sam Mayer started 35th, but finished a very close second as he brushed the back bumper of Love's No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in a last corner lunge. At the checkered flag, there was just over a tenth between them (0.128s).

It was Phoenix one year ago where Love became a NASCAR O'Reilly champion, and on Saturday, he moved ahead in the championship by 36 points. 

 

"The  41 [Mayer] team did a great job going from the back and making their car better," said Love, who led 156 of 200 laps in Saturday's race. "Honestly, it felt like they were a little better than we were at the end. I was having to just drive a lot over the tire to make any sort of lap time. So, I'll yell at Danny [Stockman, crew chief] for not freeing me up more later, but it's okay.  I'm grateful to the good Lord above for putting great people behind me. I'm grateful to the other one for RCR, ECR. It's been a tough year for us.  I'm grateful to be in a situation to win races. I've got a great pit crew who just maul everybody on pit road every week. It makes my job a lot easier. I'm just proud of this whole group."

Behind the Love-Mayer battle, Justin Allgaier finished third, Corey Day fourth, and Sammy Smith fifth. Brandon Jones, Dean Thompson, William Sawalich, Rajah Caruth, and Carson Kvapil filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Stages 1 & 2

Love led the race from pole position, and dominated the early portion of the race. 

Ryan Sieg got into the back of Sanchez in the mid-field, and they narrowly avoided crashing as they both lost several positions.

Partway through the opening stage, there was a caution for light rain. With NASCAR's new rules allowing teams to control what tire compound they wish to be on, Jones rolled the dice and put on wet-weather tires.

Creed took the lead on the restart, but Love ran him down a few laps later. Day pulled off an impressive save on the backstretch, sliding sideways and slapping the wall while battling Crews.

As for Jones, the tire gamble did not work out at all, and he fell off of the lead lap.

Love went on to win Stage 1, followed by Creed, Allgaier, Caruth, S. Smith, Mayer, Kvapil, Clements, Tay. Gray, and Day.

During the stage break, Creed suddenly lost power and needed a push back to the pits. The team lost three laps working under the hood, all but ensuring Creed wouldn't leave Phoenix as the championship leader. 

 

On the restart, Allgaier took the lead from Love, who continued to struggle on restarts.

Jake Finch fell off the pace with engine issues and went to the garage, but the race stayed green.

Just like the previous run, Love ran down the leader as the run progressed and reclaimed the race lead. Love swept the stages, winning Stage 2 over Allgaier, Tay. Gray, Day, Mayer, Caruth, S. Smith, Kvapil, Hill, and Thompson.

Stage 3

It was a Love-Day front row as Allgaier fell to fifth in the pits. Tay. Gray was third, but a wheel rolled out of their box and resulted in an end-of-line penalty.

Love again lost the lead on the initial restart, and behind them, the first caution for an on-track incident flew. Teammates Brennan Poole and Lavar Scott collided, and crashed along with Gray after the penalty that sent him to the back.

 

Finally, Love fought back on a restart and took back the lead from Day. Mayer, who had fought all the way from the rear of the field, crept up into second as they approached green-flag pit stops.

The pit stop sequence began with 48 laps to go and the leaders did not wait as other cars filed down.

Mayer was just over two seconds adrift of Love, while Crews and R. Sieg got hit with speeding penalties.

The pit stop cycle was interrupted by another spin from Poole, with Retzlaff and H. Burton leading as they had yet to pit.

Love held the lead on the restart, but he never really could get away from Mayer.

On the final lap, Mayer sent it deep into Turn 3, even hitting the rear bumper of Love's car as he pushed up and the Love slid sideways. But that wasn't enough as Love claimed a crucial Chase victory in the desert.

Jesse Love, No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, holds off Sam Mayer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet

Photo by: Chris Graythen - Getty Images

cla#drivermanufacturerlapstimegapintpitslaps ledretirementptsbest timebest lap

1	2	Jesse Love	Chevrolet	200	2:04'30.365			5	156		75	28.363	56
2	41	Sam Mayer	Chevrolet	200	2:04'30.493	0.128	0.128	6			46	28.450	109
3	7	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	200	2:04'32.565	2.200	2.072	6	18		52	28.314	56
4	17	Corey Day	Chevrolet	200	2:04'34.716	4.351	2.151	6	7		41	28.504	108
5	8	Sammy Smith	Chevrolet	200	2:04'38.623	8.258	3.907	6			42	28.756	59
6	20	Brandon Jones	Toyota	200	2:04'39.431	9.066	0.808	7			31	28.598	5
7	26	Dean Thompson	Toyota	200	2:04'41.596	11.231	2.165	6			31	28.808	57
8	18	William Sawalich	Toyota	200	2:04'42.137	11.772	0.541	6			29	28.755	5
9	88	Rajah Caruth	Chevrolet	200	2:04'43.007	12.642	0.870	6			40	28.786	56
10	1	Carson Kvapil	Chevrolet	200	2:04'43.322	12.957	0.315	7			34	28.800	7
11	99	Parker Retzlaff	Chevrolet	200	2:04'44.056	13.691	0.734	6	9		26	28.896	57
12	51	Jeremy Clements	Chevrolet	200	2:04'49.761	19.396	5.705	6	1		28	28.948	4
13	24	Harrison Burton	Toyota	200	2:04'49.986	19.621	0.225	7			24	28.941	58
14	32	Andrew Patterson	Chevrolet	200	2:04'51.258	20.893	1.272	8			23	28.945	57
15	21	Austin Hill	Chevrolet	200	2:04'51.933	21.568	0.675	6			24	28.837	57
16	27	Jeb Burton	Chevrolet	200	2:04'52.316	21.951	0.383	6			21	28.878	3
17	96	Anthony Alfredo	Chevrolet	200	2:04'54.113	23.748	1.797	6			20	28.988	2
18	02	Ryan Ellis	Chevrolet	200	2:04'56.059	25.694	1.946	8			19	28.820	55
19	45	Lavar Scott	Chevrolet	200	2:05'00.159	29.794	4.100	8			18	29.023	56
20	19	Brent Crews	Toyota	199	2:04'46.075	1 Lap	1 Lap	7	1		17	28.919	5
21	48	Patrick Staropoli	Chevrolet	199	2:04'49.435	1 Lap	3.360	6			16	28.811	56
22	87	Nicholas Sanchez	Chevrolet	199	2:04'50.866	1 Lap	1.431	7				29.115	157
23	39	Ryan Sieg	Chevrolet	199	2:04'51.032	1 Lap	0.166	8			14	28.679	108
24	31	Blaine Perkins	Chevrolet	199	2:04'54.868	1 Lap	3.836	6			13	28.866	58
25	28	Kyle Sieg	Chevrolet	199	2:04'56.369	1 Lap	1.501	6			12	29.060	5
26	92	Josh Williams	Chevrolet	199	2:04'56.542	1 Lap	0.173	6			11	28.876	56
27	42	Brad Perez	Chevrolet	199	2:04'56.963	1 Lap	0.421	6			10	29.046	56
28	54	Taylor Gray	Toyota	199	2:05'00.096	1 Lap	3.133	8			19	28.420	57
29	53	Will Rodgers	Chevrolet	198	2:04'32.152	2 Laps	1 Lap	6			8	29.107	55
30	43	Connor Mosack	Chevrolet	198	2:04'34.116	2 Laps	1.964	8				28.951	58
31	0	Garrett Smithley	Chevrolet	198	2:04'41.218	2 Laps	7.102	7			6	29.083	56
32	00	Sheldon Creed	Chevrolet	198	2:04'44.195	2 Laps	2.977	8	8		14	28.580	6
33	55	Joey Gase	Ford	198	2:04'57.712	2 Laps	13.517	7			4	28.941	58
34	91	Leland Honeyman Jr.	Chevrolet	197	2:04'33.260	3 Laps	1 Lap	7				29.168	6
35	44	Brennan Poole	Ford	197	2:04'33.521	3 Laps	0.261	9			2	29.137	2
36	07	Josh Bilicki	Chevrolet	179	1:54'53.994	21 Laps	18 Laps	7		Brakes	1	28.987	58
37	47	Dawson Cram	Chevrolet	126	1:24'48.844	74 Laps	53 Laps	7		Fuel pump	1	29.396	58
38	9	Jake Finch	Chevrolet	54	38'59.183	146 Laps	72 Laps	4		Engine	1	29.156	4