AVONDALE, Ariz. — Jesse Love opened the NASCAR Xfinity season by winning at Daytona and finished it by winning the season finale at Phoenix to claim his first NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.
The 20-year-old Love gives car owner Richard Childress his sixth Xfinity driver championship.
“I just feel so clean, relieved,” said Love, who did not win between his season-opening and season-ending victories this year. “It’s been a tough year for me. Man, I’ve just put so much work into it.”
NASCAR also makes changes to the minimum age requirements.
Love passed Connor Zilisch with 25 laps to go and pulled away to win. Zilisch, who won a series-high 10 races, finished third to lose the title.
“You work so hard for 38 weeks, yeah, coming up short sucks,” Zilisch said.
“I’m still so proud of my team, what we’ve accomplished this year. We have nothing to hang our heads about. We were the best car for two-thirds of the year. We dominated until these last three races.
“Yeah, it cost us a championship … we’ll keep our heads high. We are walking home with more than three times as many trophies as anybody else. We won the most races, had the most top 10s, top fives, poles. There’s no reason we should be upset because of this outcome.”
Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, William Byron and Kyle Larson will battle for the title on the 1-mile oval in Avondale, Arizona.
Aric Almirola finished second to give Joe Gibbs Racing the Xfinity owners championship. This is the seventh Xfinity owners title for JGR.
After Zilisch, Brandon Jones placed fourth and Justin Allgaier, a title contender, finished fifth. Carson Kvapil, finished last among the title contenders in 13th place.
Stage 1 winner: Taylor Gray
Stage 2 winner: Justin Allgaier
Next: The series is off until opening the 2026 season Feb. 14 at Daytona International Speedway.
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