TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — Nineteen-year-old rookie Jesse Love won the first NASCAR Xfinity Series race of his career in a crash-marred, double-overtime finish at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday.
Love held off Brennan Poole, who pulled alongside roaring into the trioval, and took the checkered flag 0.141 seconds ahead of Riley Herbst. Anthony Alfredo and Leland Honeyman claimed the next two spots, Poole faded to fifth, and one last crash sent Joey Gase spinning behind the frontrunners.
“Let’s go playoff racing!” Love screamed over the radio.
Hailie Deegan went into the final restart with a shot at becoming the highest-finishing woman in Xfinity Series history, but she slipped all the way to 12th. Danica Patrick retains the distinction with a fourth-place showing at Las Vegas in 2011.
Pole-sitter Austin Hill — Love’s teammate at Richard Childress Racing — won the first stage, led a race-high 41 laps and was at the front of an 18-car train with two laps to go when the usual Talladega chaos erupted.
Parker Kligerman appeared to give Hill a couple of slight taps to the rear bumper, though Kligerman insisted over his radio that he never touched the leader’s car. Nevertheless, Hill suddenly went into a spin that ended his hopes of his third victory of the season and sent the race to overtime.
Kligerman was out front when the green flag waved, but that didn’t last long. Shane Van Gisbergen seemed to run out of gas and Love got into Kligerman going for lead, sending the the No. 48 car smashing into the wall.
Several other contenders had to duck into the pits for fuel before the second overtime, which extended the race from 113 to 124 laps.
