Jesse Love fends off late Sam Mayer charge for dominant victory at Phoenix
Jeffrey Hrunka - INDYCAR Contributor
Avondale, AZ- It was too little, too late for Sam Mayer late-race rally in the Timberland Pro 200, as Jesse Love held him off to solidify a dominant victory at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday night. With the win, Love takes over the points lead from Sheldon Creed for a 36-point advantage over championship runner-up Justin Allgaier.
“Found my happy place there at the end to kind of make just enough speed where, at least with the accordion effect, it was gonna be really hard to pass me,” Love said.
It was a night filled with opportunity for several NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Chase contenders, as championship leader Sheldon Creed suffered a kill switch issue earlier while running in second on Lap 47, sending him several laps down. Creed settled for 32nd and lost the points lead. He also fell to fourth in The Chase standings, 59 points behind Love.
“I think some guys might get caught up in that moment, but I'm racing,” Love said. “All I can do is go as fast as the car will let me go and make good decisions, and I'm not going to do anything different if you know some guy has a bad day.”
Love took full advantage, not only beating Creed outright, but sweeping both stages en route to his second victory of the season. His achilles heel was giving up the lead on restarts. For the first three restarts of the race, the driver lined up next to him on the front row got the jump.
That allowed Sheldon Creed, Justin Allgaier and Sheldon Creed to get up front and lead laps. Luckily, Love’s pace alone was fast enough to retake the lead and drive away.
Even with Creed's early issues, the Haas Factory team (HFT) Chevrolets were quick. Sam Mayer started in the back and passed 16 cars through the first seven laps. By Lap 32, he was already inside the Top-10. Mayer kept up the pace, moving through the field to fourth after the final set of pit stops.
After the 56-lap run, the longest of the race, Brennan Poole brought out a caution for a spin on Lap 158. Leader Parker Retzlaff and Harrison Burton pitted under caution, off cycle from the rest of the field, leaving Love and Mayer to battle it out on the front row. Fortunately for Love, he immediately jumped to a 0.5-second advantage.
Then, Mayer started reeling back in with five to go.
“Looking at old video of the HFT cars here, they're historically just super free, and they make a lot of speed when the track gets cooled off,” Love said. “I knew he was going to be very hard to beat in stage three when he got up there.”
Although Mayer was the faster car at the end, Love expected it and took his air away to force him to experiment with different lines. That proved enough to fend off the HFT driver by a tenth.
“At the same time, you know, I'm computing all these different things in my head,” Love said. “What line he's running, try to take his air away. What lines he can run, and what lines he can't run. A couple different things that I can try, but then there's a couple different things like misses on the racetrack that I absolutely cannot screw up.”
Even with a 36-point lead, Love doesn’t plan on changing much of his approach for the rest of The Chase.
"I don't plan on changing much of what got me to this point,” Love said. "I need to kind of wrap my head around the next two weeks with the points that we have, and kind of take it one by one, just because Talladega and Martinsville are very high risk, high reward.”
Timberland Pro 200 Results:
Jesse Love #2 - (WINNER)
Sam Mayer #41 -0.128
Justin Allgaier #7-2.2s
Corey Day #17 -4.351s
Sammy Smith #8 -8.258s
Brandon Jones #20 -9.066s
Dean Thompson #26 -11.231s
William Sawalich #18 -11.772s
Rajah Caruth #88 -12.642s
Carson Kvapil #1 -12.957s
Parker Retzlaff #99 -13.691s
Jeremy Clements #51 -19.396s
Harrison Burton #24 -19.621s
Andrew Patterson #32 -20.893s
Austin Hill #21 -21.568s
Jeb Burton #27 -21.951s
Anothony Alfredo #96 -23.748s
Ryan Ellis #96 -25.694s
Lavar Scott #45 -29.794s
Brent Crews #19 -1 lap down
Patrick Staropoli #48 -1 lap down
Nick Sanchez #87 -1 lap down
Ryan Sieg #39 -1 lap down
Blaine Perkins #31 -1 lap down
Kyle Sieg #28 -1 lap down
Josh Williams #92 -1 lap down
Brad Perez #42 -1 lap down
Taylor Gray #54 -1 lap down
Will Rodgers #53 -2 laps down
Connor Mosack #43 -2 laps down
Garrett Smithley #0 -2 laps down
Sheldon Creed #00 -2 laps down
Joey Gase #55 -2 laps down
Leland Honeyman #91 -3 laps down
Brennan Poole #44 -3 laps down
Josh Bilicki #07 -21 laps down
Dawson Cram #47 -74 laps down
Jack Finch #9 -146 laps down
The Chase for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ championship continues at Talladega Superspeedway for The Progress Group 250. Fans can tune in to the action on Saturday, Oct. 14, on The CW.
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