Jesse Love’s road to the 2025 Xfinity Series title went through his good friend Connor Zilisch.
Love had nowhere near the season Zilisch had when it comes to results. Zilisch, a rookie at JR Motorsports, won 10 races (albeit one where he started the race but Parker Kligerman finished in his car) and led 1,013 laps. Love, driving for Richard Childress Racing, won two races — the opener at Daytona and then the finale to win the title — and led 297 laps.
Love enjoyed the season-ending glory but endured a year when he saw Zilisch’s stock as a potential megastar rise. Zilisch had won in his Xfinity debut in 2024 at Watkins Glen, but everyone expected him to be stout on road courses.
The fact that he won on ovals with some regularity only added to the Zilisch hype. Zilisch went 18 consecutive races with top-five finishes. The 20-year-old Love watched and couldn’t match Zilisch race to race as he finished the year with nine top-five finishes.
The thing is — no one else did either (Zilisch teammate Justin Allgaier did lead more laps but fewer miles than Zilisch). But how does a young driver handle it knowing that his friend has enjoyed so much success, so early? Love had two choices: Try to match Zlisich’s success or focus more on himself and getting better rather than focusing too much on Zlisch.
“I sat down, and I was like I can’t control what Connor does, but I can control what I do,” Love said at his championship news conference at Phoenix Raceway last month. “Every day I woke up, he’s motivated me to be better.
“I don’t like losing to him. I’ve woke up every day trying to beat him, probably more than myself.”
Love’s path to the Xfinity title is one of three driver storylines that are part of the series “Rising,” a five-episode docuseries airing on FS1 with a debut each Monday. The second episode will air today.
The Zilisch storyline isn’t the focus of the series but it’s there. And in his post-championship news conference, Love explained it wasn’t easy.
“It’s been really hard this year,” Love said. “At the end of the day, I want to walk in the room and feel like the man. … For quite a while, once I had like my breakout ARCA season, I was the hottest thing for the most part with the exception of probably Corey [Heim].
“Then Connor sort of took that away from me. It has been actually powerful, exhausting to take care of that with simply the way in which that your pals take a look at you, the way in which the followers take a look at you. It is all powerful. It was a tough tablet for me to swallow.”
Jesse Love (L) and Connor Zilisch are the definition of “pleasant rivals.”
However he tried to make use of that as motivation.
“If you happen to simply take a look at Jesse’s season, second-year season, he is carried out good — however while you take a look at Connor’s, it has been method above something you’ve got ever seen earlier than,” Love crew chief Danny Stockman mentioned in the course of the championship information convention. “That places quite a lot of pressure on groups. However on the finish of the day, it’s important to work by yourself program, it’s important to work by yourself stuff.”
Subsequent season, Zilisch will compete in Cup as a rookie at Trackhouse. Love will do one other yr at RCR in what is going to now be referred to as the O’Reilly Auto Elements Collection. He’d hope {that a} Cup seat follows in 2027.
He’ll must discover a new mindset apart from making an attempt to beat Zilisch.
“I am not going to have Connor to match myself to subsequent yr,” Love mentioned. “I’ll have to vary that mindset fairly fast.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports activities. He has spent a long time masking motorsports, together with over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting Information, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Seashore) Information-Journal. Comply with him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
