Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Motorsport

Jesse Love victorious in wild wreckfest at Rockingham

Jesse Love Chevrolet Rockingham Ryan Sieg Sammy Smith Ford Richard Childress Racing Toyota NASCAR Christian Eckes

UPDATE: Jesse Love disqualified after failing post-race inspection. Sammy Smith has been declared the race winner.

After an action-packed race, slowed by 14 cautions, two red flags, and an overtime — Jesse Love became the lucky driver to take the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to Victory Lane at Rockingham.

For Love, Saturday's Xfinity win makes his third career win and his second of the 2025 season. It's also the 20-year-old's first series win at a non-drafting track. He excitedly climbed out the roof hatch of his car, sliding down the windshield/hood as he was presented with the checkered flag. While he did all that, his driverless No. 2 car proceeded to roll down the banking and into the infield grass.

Bye car 👋 #NASCAR 🏁

🎥 @NASCAR_Xfinity pic.twitter.com/KwPbpVeEz4
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) April 19, 2025

"Oh my gosh," said Love. "These fans are amazing. What an incredible race track. You probably can't even hear me right now (over the fans) but this race track is right up my alley. It's hammer down."

Regarding the final restart, he added: "I don't know if I hit him [Sammy Smith] or if he stumbled, but I just had to get it done. I couldn't lose that one. We just had too good of piece."

Love also took advantage of his winning moment to urge fans to get themselves checked for skin cancer — dedicating the victory to his girlfriend's sister, Jessica, who passed away almost exactly one year ago from the disease.

Chaos and calamity

The race featured extremely high attrition as most of the drivers in the field had never raced here before, considering the NASCAR Xfinity Series hasn't raced Rockingham in 21 years. One of the only drivers with experience was Kasey Kahne, who was making his first appearance in any NASCAR race in nearly seven years. Unfortunately, he was collected in an early wreck involving Katherine Legge that left him with significant damage. He soldiered on and still finished 15th, but he no longer had a winning car under him.

Kahne and Legge were the first of what would become many drivers to tear up their equipment at Rockingham. 82 laps were completed behind the pace car and a dozen cars failed to reach the checkered flag. The race for the win somewhat resembled Friday's Truck race with several drivers grabbing track position on a fuel-mileage gamble, hoping for enough caution laps to make it without pitting. And like the Truck race, most of them did not make it.

Leading that group was veteran Xfinity driver Ryan Sieg, still searching for his first win after 377 races and 12 years in the series. He was looking strong out front, fending off multiple attempts by Love to overtake him.

But Sieg's dream of finally winning a national-level NASCAR race ended with less than 15 laps to go.

While cruising under caution, Sieg's car -- running on fumes -- slowed abruptly, losing the lead as he was unable to keep pace. On the restart that followed, Christian Eckes ran out and triggered a multi-car wreck that collected Sieg as well. NASCAR was forced to red flag the race while they dealt with the carnage.

The race resumed with just four laps to go with Smith muscling by Love for the race lead. Another driver [Sam Mayer] ran out of fuel as well, triggering yet another wreck in the midfield. Again, the race was briefly stopped for cleanup.

After 14 cautions, the event was pushed into overtime with the sun beginning to set behind the track (which does not have lights). Love restarted third, but quickly moved Smith out of the way, reclaiming the race lead and never looking back.

Smith finished second, Parker Retzlaff third, Harrison Burton fourth, and Brennan Poole fifth. Taylor Gray, Austin Hill, Josh Williams, Jeb Burton, and Daniel Dye filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Photos from Rockingham - Race

Kasey Kahne, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Cla	Driver	#	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Interval	Pits	Points
1	J. LoveRichard Childress Racing	2	Chevrolet	256	2:59'38.173		5	45
2	S. SmithJR Motorsports	8	Chevrolet	256	+0.691 2:59'38.864	0.691	6	35
3	P. RetzlaffAlpha Prime Racing	4	Chevrolet	256	+0.826 2:59'38.999	0.135	7	43
4	H. BurtonAM Racing	25	Ford	256	+1.001 2:59'39.174	0.175	7	33
5	B. PooleAlpha Prime Racing	44	Chevrolet	256	+1.434 2:59'39.607	0.433	7	32
6	T. GrayJoe Gibbs Racing	54	Toyota	256	+1.714 2:59'39.887	0.280	6	32
7	A. HillRichard Childress Racing	21	Chevrolet	256	+1.732 2:59'39.905	0.018	6	30
8	J. WilliamsKaulig Racing	11	Chevrolet	256	+2.031 2:59'40.204	0.299	9	29
9	J. BurtonJordan Anderson Racing	27	Chevrolet	256	+2.179 2:59'40.352	0.148	7	43
10	D. DyeKaulig Racing	10	Chevrolet	256	+2.232 2:59'40.405	0.053	11	27
11	J. ClementsJeremy Clements Racing	51	Chevrolet	256	+2.347 2:59'40.520	0.115	8	36
12	D. ThompsonSam Hunt Racing	26	Toyota	256	+2.371 2:59'40.544	0.024	8	35
13	B. JonesJoe Gibbs Racing	20	Toyota	256	+2.414 2:59'40.587	0.043	9	30
14	C. ZilischJR Motorsports	88	Chevrolet	256	+2.467 2:59'40.640	0.053	12	23
15	K. KahneRichard Childress Racing	33	Chevrolet	256	+2.925 2:59'41.098	0.458	14	22
16	A. AlfredoYoung's Motorsports	42	Chevrolet	256	+2.956 2:59'41.129	0.031	8	34
17	C. KvapilJR Motorsports	1	Chevrolet	256	+3.159 2:59'41.332	0.203	7	27
18	J. BilickiDGM Racing with Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	91	Chevrolet	256	+3.272 2:59'41.445	0.113	11	19
19	R. SiegRSS Racing	39	Ford	256	+4.891 2:59'43.064	1.619	11	26
20	E. PatrickSS-Green Light Racing	07	Chevrolet	256	+5.517 2:59'43.690	0.626	10	17
21	K. SiegRSS Racing	28	Ford	256	+9.010 2:59'47.183	3.493	8	23
22	J. AllgaierJR Motorsports	7	Chevrolet	254	+2 Laps 2:59'48.760	2 Laps	9	15
23	G. SmithleySS-Green Light Racing	14	Chevrolet	253	+3 Laps 2:59'48.105	1 Lap	14	14
24	C. EckesKaulig Racing	16	Chevrolet	252	+4 Laps 2:59'55.596	1 Lap	8	13
25	V. SalasAlpha Prime Racing	45	Chevrolet	251	+5 Laps 2:59'52.047	1 Lap	20	12
26	W. SawalichJoe Gibbs Racing	18	Toyota	248	+8 Laps 2:59'45.108	3 Laps	13	11
27	S. MayerHaas Factory Team	41	Ford	247	+9 Laps 2:49'10.469	1 Lap	5	10
28	M. DiBenedettoViking Motorsports	99	Chevrolet	247	+9 Laps 2:49'10.842	0.373	7	19
29	K. WrightOur Motorsports	5	Chevrolet	247	+9 Laps 2:49'10.959	0.117	10	8
30	T. AnnunziataCope Family Racing	70	Chevrolet	246	+10 Laps 2:48'47.444	1 Lap	8	7
31	A. GreenJordan Anderson Racing	87	Chevrolet	241	+15 Laps 2:41'19.549	5 Laps	7	6
32	N. SanchezBig Machine Racing Team	48	Chevrolet	240	+16 Laps 2:40'22.833	1 Lap	7	15
33	B. PerkinsJordan Anderson Racing	31	Chevrolet	226	+30 Laps 2:27'50.601	14 Laps	6	4
34	R. EllisDGM Racing with Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	71	Chevrolet	180	+76 Laps 2:02'16.612	46 Laps	5	3
35	G. Van AlstJoey Gase Motorsports	35	Chevrolet	171	+85 Laps 2:14'01.877	9 Laps	9	2
36	J. BonsignoreJoe Gibbs Racing	19	Toyota	157	+99 Laps 1:47'50.539	14 Laps	5	1
37	S. CreedHaas Factory Team	00	Ford	109	+147 Laps 1:02'50.459	48 Laps	4	1
38	K. LeggeJoey Gase Motorsports	53	Chevrolet	50	+206 Laps 24'11.570	59 Laps	2