March 2025 NASCAR future star of the month: Jesse Love

Written by Gabriel Tsui, Edited by Sean McKean

Credit: @jesselovejr1 via X

Welcome to our brand new series of NASCAR future star of the month, where we introduce a young driver who has been lighting up the junior ranks of NASCAR. We’ll give a brief history of the driver, list out what they achieved in the past month and what their future holds for them.

There are a few rules to this series, as to who qualifies as a future star. To qualify as a future star, these drivers must be 1) Under 25 years old, so unfortunately for drivers such as Anthony Alfredo, Taylor and Tanner Gray, they wouldn’t qualify as a future star; and 2) holds a full-time seat in the national series (Trucks and Xfinity), unless they are under 18-years-old and therefore restricted to ARCA.

For the month of March, we decided to also include stats from February since we started the season halfway through February. So without further ado, for the month of March, our pick for NASCAR future star of the month is Jesse Love!

Early Beginnings

Born in January 2005, the Californian native began racing in quarter midgets at the age of five, then went on to race in dirt and asphalt races in USAC. Throughout his youth career, he competed in multiple regional racing series and achieved numerous wins and championships.

Following two consecutive championships in a regional junior late models series, Love moved to the SRL Southwest Late Model Tour in 2019, where he secured rookie of the year honours, before moving up to ARCA.

Credis: @XfinityRacing via X

Dominating ARCA

Love started his NASCAR career in 2020 in the ARCA West series, winning the series in his rookie season with three wins and nine top-five finishes. He successfully defended his championship in 2021, becoming the first back-to-back champion since Todd Gilliland in 2016 and 2017.

Following back-to-back championships at the age of 16, Love joined Venturini for a part-time ride in ARCA in 2022, including a dominating win in Illinois Ffairgrounds, leading every lap of the race en route to victory lane. He completed the season with eight top-fives and finished every race within the top-ten, earning an 11th place finish in the championship.

In 2023, he was promoted to a full-time ride, and he completely dominated the season, taking ten wins and 16 top-three finishes in a 20-race season, winning the championship by an extraordinary margin of 145 points over second place Andrés Pérez de Lara.

In the meantime, Love also made his debut in Trucks, substituting at Gateway for an ill Corey Heim. He earned a ninth-placed finish for Tricon Garage.

Moving up to the Xfinity Series

Following a dominant 2023, Love was signed by Richard Childress Racing to a full-time ride in the No. 2, replacing the outgoing Sheldon Creed. He started off the season with a statement pole position in Daytona, then followed up with a string of top-ten finishes from Phoenix to Talladega, the latter of which where he found his first Xfinity Series win. 

His hot streak cooled off for the middle part of the regular season, where he only found three top-ten finishes up, until Darlington, when where he heated up for four consecutive top-ten finishes to close out the regular season. 

Credits: @RCR_Museum via X

Love carried his strong form into the postseason, posting two top-ten finishes in the Round of 12 to advance onto the next round. Despite scoring another two top-tens in the Round of 8, he failed to find inspiration in Martinsville, ultimately missing out on the championship race.

He ended the season eighth in the championship standings, and with his first season over and in the history books, it’s time for Love’s sophomore season.

A hot start to the season

Kicking off the season, Love started in Daytona from ninth on the grid. The first stage was relatively uneventful apart from a mistimed push from the RCR driver that sent the No. 20 of Brandon Jones into the wall.

Stage two was similar, as he cruised through the stage before pitting late, setting up a huge run heading into the final stage. Early into stage three, Love rode the train to move up the ranks to fifth, and a speedy pit cycle by the crew meant Love jumped all the way up to the first row amidst a caution flag waved due to a crash.

Love got a great jump off the start with 25 to go and had a strong grip on the lead. Despite multiple restarts, an overtime and strong runs from the top line, Love stood fast and took the white flag on the overtime as a huge crash ensued behind him, securing his first win of the season.

In March, Love had four consecutive top-ten finishes, including a third place finish in the Las Vegas weekend despite mistakes made down on pit road. However, an unfortunate accident in the final weekend of the month saw him acquire his first DNF of the season, while dropping from third to fifth in the championship standings.

What the future holds

Recently, ahead of the Martinsville weekend, Richard Childress Racing announced that the 20-year-old will be making his Cup Series debut in Bristol on April 13th. His path towards promotion is unclear, but with a poor start to the season for Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch reaching 40 years of age in early May, the opportunity for promotion is there for the taking.

Kaulig Racing, a team with a technical alliance with RCR, could be on the lookout for another driver with Ty Dillon struggling in his early return to the Cup Series. If Love can show promise in his Cup Series entries, RCR could very well push for a promotion for Love to the No. 10.

In the Xfinity, Love will need to find more consistency down the stretch, but if he can do so, he has a very real chance at being a championship contender. 

We will see how the season unfolds for the 20-year-old, but it is looking pretty good for the rising star.