“I Had to Do Some Growing Up”- Jesse Love Publicly Addresses 2023 Season’s Mistakes Amidst Arca Rookie of the Year Honor

Jesse Love has stolen the headlines in his debut season. The 18-year-old dominated the ARCA Menards Series in a historical season that saw him win half of the races in the 20-race season. Following up on his championship win, the ARCA Menards Series Bounty Rookie of the Year award came as icing on the cake. Leading the way for the owners’ champion Billy Venturini to the stage, the No.20 Toyota driver revealed the mental block he had to overcome en route to the championship.

Coming off the back of back-to-back ARCA West title wins, Love isn’t short on winning experience. However, there was definitely a change in atmosphere as he transitioned to the higher tier. Apart from that, a move to Richard Childress Racing’s Xfinity Series car also awaits him in 2024. The opportunity could prove to be huge for the youngster’s career.

Jesse Love voices his gratitude for success

Apart from his ten wins, Jesse also bagged 17 top-5 finishes. He showed great versatility to win races on different types of tracks. Another weapon he has added to his arsenal in 2023 is consistency. Jesse Love started seven races as the leader and won four of them to show his prowess from the pole. Although the teams changed, the success didn’t. The change in environment needed adapting to and Jesse Love used some help with that.

“I had to do some growing up and thankfully I have some great people around me. I didn’t mean to do so many things when I was younger than what I am right now. I was kind of able to channel that into executing on and off the race track, showing up to the race track, preparing every week. Billy gives us the resources we need every week . We’ve got great partners.” claimed Jesse.

Venturini Motorsports has been one of the best car designers in the ARCA circuit. The 2-time ARCA West champion felt his No. 20 team deserved a lot of the credit for the same. And Love didn’t back down from acknowledging his crew’s efforts ans dedication. Giving them their due credit, Love said:

“Our whole 20 team, all year long..We won races that we shouldn’t have. We just had a lot of great race cars and we had a shot to win no matter what. We never really made many mistakes and just had a great season.“

The next chapter of his career will begin in 2024 in the No.2 RCR car. Jesse Love will replace Sheldon Creed who has had a fallout with owner Richard Childress after a playoff disaster. The RCR opportunity could be a massive jump for Love and as he explained rectifying mistakes is key to it.

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Questioning his decisions was pivotal for Love

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Jesse Love has had a relatively less successful tenure in the ARCA Menards West Series. His development was surprising considering that he’d win 3 or 4 races per season. However, upon introspection, Love realized that if he could minimize mistakes in races, he’d bag many more wins.

“I was just like ‘What can I do wrong again this year to not win that many races?’ Because last year I won like three races and the year before that I won probably four or five races,” said Love, while speaking to NBC. His performances propelled him to three starts in the Truck Series and where he finished 9th, 13th and 4th. From starting off his ARCA Menards 2023 season with a P7 finish in Daytona, he sure has come a long way.

In the second race of the season at Phoenix, Love was involved in a multi-car crash that dragged him back to a P27 finish. But since then he didn’t look back and won 8 of his next 11 races and equalled Ty Gibbs’ ARCA Series record for highest number of wins in a season.

“I knew I needed a breakout year. I don’t think I quite knew how to do it though,” said Love soon after.

It is safe to say that 2023 has been the breakout year Jesse Love was looking for. He has been growing at an incredible rate and a RCR Cup Series car looks like a real possibility in all honesty.

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