February 15, 2025 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Jesse Love wins Xfinity Series season-opener at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — In a typically wild finish at Daytona International Speedway, Jesse Love won the United Rentals 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series season-opener in overtime – taking the white flag moments before a massive multi-car accident behind him brought out a caution officially ending the race.

An out-of-breath Love emerged from his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet’s roof hatch on the Daytona International Speedway infield grass to the cheers of his team celebrating the 20-year old Californian’s second career win.

“So many people have helped me get to this point,” said Love, who led three times for 30 laps on the evening.

“Not sure what happened to the 21 (his teammate Austin Hill) tonight, but he was really dominant tonight,” Love continued. “We’re working on changing our culture here at RCR. We’re winners, we know we are and we really want to win a championship for Richard Childress. I’m ready to go to [the next race at] Atlanta now.”

Love put his Chevrolet out front on the final three re-starts, exchanging the point briefly with Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed before taking the position for good with 18 laps remaining and ultimately holding off the Haas drivers Sam Mayer and Creed. Rookies Carson Kvapil and Taylor Gray were just behind rounding out the top-five.

As Love indicated, for most of the early race, it looked as if his teammate, three-time defending race winner Hill was going to turn in an incredible fourth straight win in the season-opener. He won both Stage 1 and 2 and led 56 of the opening 82 laps – the most laps out front on the night. Together Love and Hill led all but 40 of the race’s 126 laps

Hill’s No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, however, had engine issues shortly after the second stage break – Hill reporting smoke inside his cockpit and other drivers saying his car was leaking fluid out the back.

Although Hill stayed out front, he pit with a handful of other Chevrolets on Lap 80 and when the RCR team checked under the hood, it was apparent the issue was terminal.

The team declared the car done, reiterating to their driver it wasn’t “for lack of effort” on the night.

“Such a bummer, we had such a fast Chevrolet,” Hill said after parking his car in the garage. “Everybody at RCR and ECR did a great job building this race car. We showed we were the dominant team again getting the stage wins there. I just wish that we could have lost this race on our terms, not from a mechanical failure.

“I’d almost rather get turned on the backstretch on the white flag lap and end up on my lid than have it end like this. This one is going to sting a little bit, but we have Atlanta next week and I feel like we’re going to be good all year long in 2025. I feel really good about this team.”

The two rookies who finished inside the top-five were indicative of a strong showing for the large first-year class. Several were eliminated while running inside the top-10 on track – from Daniel Dye in the race’s opening accident to highly-touted series newcomers Connor Zilisch, William Sawalich and Christian Eckes who were all collected in an accident with three laps remaining in regulation – all running in the top-10 at the time.

Last summer’s NASCAR Cup Series Daytona race winner Harrison Burton finished sixth in his return to fulltime NASCAR Xfinity Series racing. Jordan Anderson, Dean Thompson, Jeremy Clements and Patrick Emerling rounded out the top-10 in a race that saw 11 different leaders and 24 lead change on the 2.5-mile Daytona high banks.

Clements set the Xfinity Fastest Lap of the race earning a bonus point. Creed takes a nine-point lead over Love atop the early championship standings.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to competition next Saturday on the Atlanta Motor Speedway high-banks (5 p.m. ET on CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The Georgia-native Hill swept both Atlanta races last year.


NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Number 1
Race Results for the United Rentals 300 - Saturday, February 15, 2025
Daytona International Speedway - Daytona Beach, FL - 2.5 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 126 Laps - 315. Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 2/15/2025 @ 08:09 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 9 2 Jesse Love Whelen Chevrolet 126 9  42 Running 3 30 5
2 8 41 Sam Mayer Audibel Ford 126   35 Running  
3 6 00 Sheldon Creed Friends of Jaclyn Ford 126 2 3 51 Running 3 7
4 10 1 Carson Kvapil # Bass Pro Shops/Clarience Tech Chevrolet 126   33 Running  
5 2 54 Taylor Gray # Operation 300 Toyota 126 10 7 37 Running 1 1
6 32 25 Harrison Burton Dead On Tools Ford 126  10 32 Running 1 1
7 38 32 Jordan Anderson Volpi Chevrolet 126   30 Running  
8 19 26 Dean Thompson # Thompson Pipe Group Toyota 126 8 5 38 Running  
9 25 51 Jeremy Clements One Stop/All South Electric Chevrolet 126   29 Running  
10 35 07 Patrick Emerling Firman Power Equipment Chevrolet 126   27 Running  
11 30 99 Matt DiBenedetto Viking Motorsports Chevrolet 126   26 Running  
12 3 16 Christian Eckes # Celsius Chevrolet 126   25 Running  
13 36 45 Caesar Bacarella Mongoose Power Solutions Chevrolet 126   24 Running 1 4
14 29 91 Josh Bilicki Rita's Italian Ice Chevrolet 126   23 Running  
15 37 53 Joey Gase NCPC Race Against Crime Chevrolet 126   22 Running  
16 22 27 Jeb Burton Golden Corral Chevrolet 126 4 6 33 Running 1 4
17 33 24 Ryan Truex BB Printing Co Toyota 126   20 Running  
18 1 7 Justin Allgaier BRANDT Chevrolet 126 7 4 30 Running 5 11
19 14 39 Ryan Sieg Sci Aps Ford 125  2 27 Accident 3 10
20 21 11 Josh Williams Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet 125   17 Accident  
21 34 70 Leland Honeyman DPR Construction Chevrolet 125 6  21 Accident  
22 27 42 Anthony Alfredo Dude Wipes Chevrolet 125 5 9 23 Accident  
23 24 71 Ryan Ellis Classic Collision Chevrolet 125   14 Running  
24 13 8 Sammy Smith TMC Transportation Chevrolet 125   13 Running 1 1
25 15 19 Justin Bonsignore M3 Technology Toyota 123   12 Running  
26 16 35 Greg Van Alst CB Fabricating Chevrolet 120   11 Accident  
27 20 88 Connor Zilisch # WeatherTech Chevrolet 118   10 Accident 1 1
28 5 18 William Sawalich # Soundgear Toyota 118  8 12 Accident  
29 28 4 Parker Retzlaff Visual Pak/Rewind It 10 Chevrolet 118   8 Accident  
30 18 44 Brennan Poole Macc Door Systems Chevrolet 105   7 Running  
31 31 14 Garrett Smithley Hire Heroes/The Veterans Ranch Chevrolet 95   6 Electrical  
32 17 5 Kris Wright First National Bank Corp Chevrolet 86   5 Accident  
33 4 21 Austin Hill Bennett Transportation Chevrolet 82 1 1 24 Rear End 5 56 2
34 26 31 Blaine Perkins WERNER Chevrolet 79   3 Power Steer  
35 11 48 Nick Sanchez # Big Machine Vodka Spiked Coolers Chevrolet 59 3  10 Accident  
36 23 28 Kyle Sieg Toppool.com Ford 22   1 Rear End  
37 7 20 Brandon Jones Menards/Swiffer Toyota 5   1 Accident  
38 12 10 Daniel Dye # Champion Container Chevrolet 5   1 Accident  

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 33 Mins, 17 Secs. Average Speed: 123.301 MPH Margin of Victory: Under Caution

Stage 1 Top 10: 21, 00, 48, 27, 42, 70, 7, 26, 2, 54
Stage 2 Top 10: 21, 39, 00, 7, 26, 27, 54, 18, 42, 25

Race Comments: Jesse Love has won the United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway, his second victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Prior to the start of the race, the following vehicle(s) dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reason(s) indicated: Nos. 4, 24, 42 (Unapproved Adjustments).

Failed to Qualify: (3) 74 Carson Ware, 92 CJ McLaughlin, 29 JJ Yeley(i).

Caution Flags: 8 for 39 laps; Laps: 7-11 (#20, 1, 10, 25, 44, 88 Incident Backstretch [None]); 21-25 (Debris [44]); 32-36 (Stage 1 Conclusion [None]); 60-65 (#48, 00 Incident Frontstretch / Stage 2 Conclusion [44]); 88-95 (#5, 91 Incident Frontstretch [None]); 114-117 (#19, 42, 8, 7, 32 Incident Turn 2 [07]); 120-124 (#88, 18, 4, 16, 71, 8, 35 Incident Backstretch [42]); 126-126 (#39, 42, 91, 7, 27, 32, 70, 11 Incident Frontstretch [None]).

Lead Changes: 24 among 11 drivers; J. Allgaier 1-2; T. Gray # 3; J. Allgaier 4-5; A. Hill 6-10; J. Allgaier 11; A. Hill 12-32; J. Allgaier 33-37; H. Burton 38; J. Allgaier 39; S. Smith 40; J. Burton 41-44; A. Hill 45-67; S. Creed 68-69; R. Sieg 70; A. Hill 71-75; R. Sieg 76-77; A. Hill 78-79; R. Sieg 80-86; C. Bacarella 87-90; S. Creed 91-94; J. Love 95-102; S. Creed 103; J. Love 104-107; C. Zilisch # 108; J. Love 109-126.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: February 22, 2025 - Atlanta Motor Speedway

NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875