From iRacing to Reality: Jesse Love Jumps into the Deep End

gettyimages-2207404416 — MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA - MARCH 28: Jesse Love, driver of the #2 Whelen Chevrolet, looks on during qualifying for the NASCAR Xfinity Series US Marine Corps 250 at Martinsville Speedway on March 28, 2025 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images)

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Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love is making his NASCAR Cup Series debut in Sunday’s Food City 500, and one thing is certain: the 20-year-old from Menlo Park, Calif., can’t be faulted for lack of preparation.

“I think I probably ran about probably 2,000 laps this week on the simulator, whether it be the DIL (driver-in-the-loop simulator) at the GM Tech Center or whether it be even iRacing with Scott Speed,” Love said Saturday at Bristol.

“So just ran a lot of laps… trying different things. You know, one thing I did this week was I ran a couple 500 lap races by myself on iRacing, just to kind of condition myself to the mental drain it’s going to take to run 500 laps. Obviously, it’ll be the longest race in my life. Never ran a 24-hour race before, right? So this is going to be different for me in a lot of ways.”

Understandably, any driver’s first race in NASCAR’s top division is bound to be fraught with both anticipation and tension, but Love is trying maintain an even keel.

“Yeah, I was driving up here, and I kind of got all my emotion out on the way up here,” Love said. “Driving up here is like very mountainous and it was like driving to Baylands (Fremont, Calif.), which is where I grew up racing quarter midgets. It was kind of a similar terrain and route. So that was a pretty cool emotional experience for me.

“I remember when I was five, six, eight years old running quarter midgets with my dad, driving up this windy path one way or one-lane road up to the go-kart track and then now doing the same thing going to a Cup race. That was a really cool full-circle moment for me.

“And I feel like the best way to go about it, for me at least, is try to keep the emotions at a minimum; not be overly excited, not be overly emotional about anything, and then after the race I can kind of soak it all in, right?”

He will start 19th Sunday.