{"id":45418,"date":"2024-04-12T20:26:23","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T01:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=45418"},"modified":"2024-04-12T20:34:15","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T01:34:15","slug":"love-on-the-pole-for-nascar-xfinity-series-andys-frozen-custard-300-at-texas-motor-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/12\/love-on-the-pole-for-nascar-xfinity-series-andys-frozen-custard-300-at-texas-motor-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"Love on the pole for NASCAR Xfinity Series Andy\u2019s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio<\/em><\/p>\n

FORT WORTH \u2013 NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie Jesse Love certainly knows how to get to the point.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jesse Love, driver of the #2 Whelen Chevrolet, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 12, 2024 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Love notched his third pole of the 2024 season Friday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway in his latest bid to bag his first series victory in Saturday afternoon\u2019s Andy\u2019s Frozen Custard 300.<\/p>\n

Love toured TMS\u2019 high-banked\/1.5-mile oval in 29.093-seconds at 185.612 mph to secure P1 in the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro fielded by Richard Childress Racing. A 19-year-old native of Menlo Park, Calif., Love previously qualified first in his initial two series starts _ at Daytona International Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway, a sister Speedway Motorsports facility to TMS.<\/p>\n

So\u2026now that Love apparently has qualifying figured out, how does he and veteran crew chief Danny Stockman Jr. transform P1 into a checkered flag?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I always do a great job driving in practice, but there\u2019s so many things I want to try just to get them off my mind,\u201d said Love, alluding to Friday\u2019s abbreviated 20-minute session. \u201cSo, I\u2019m not real consistent in practice\u2026but I think I know most of what I need to know. And I think now it\u2019s just about doing the little things right _ doing things like pit road right, restarts, not putting yourself in bad spots around lapped cars _ doing things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love will start alongside reigning series champion Cole Custer after his lap in 29.115-seconds at 185.471 mph in the No. 00 Andy\u2019s Frozen Custard Ford Mustang fielded by Stewart-Haas Racing. Custer will look to embellish his TMS resume, which includes six top-10 finishes in seven starts. Four of those have been among the top-five, including a victory in the 2018 fall race.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jesse Love, driver of the #2 Whelen Chevrolet, drives during qualifying for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 12, 2024 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe track always starts out really edgy, and people are always on each other’s doors just because there’s only one lane really around here,\u201d said Custer, alluding to TMS\u2019 unique banking layout. Turns 1 and 2 are banked at 20-degrees while Turns 3 and 4 are banked at a more traditional 24-degrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it makes it pretty treacherous for everybody on restarts and everything just because you’re so tight racing,\u201d Custer said. \u201cIt’s a really hard place to get ahold of with how treacherous it is and then also trying to balance the two ends. One end’s flat, one end’s banked. So, getting the car to handle how you want it is not an easy task for the crew chiefs. But I think we have a solid piece coming here, so we’re looking forward to it.\u201d Custer is working with crew chief Jonathan Toney.<\/p>\n

Scheduled for 200 laps\/300 miles, the race will start at 12:30 p.m. (CDT) on FOX Sports 1 with radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM Channel 90.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s race will be the 47th<\/sup> Xfinity Series event conducted at \u201cThe Great American Speedway\u201d since 1997. Four drivers _ Chandler Smith and Sheldon Creed of Joe Gibbs Racing and Justin Allgaier and Sam Mayer of JR Motorsports _ will earn a $100,00 bonus if he can roll into Victory Lane. Aric Almirola of JGR won the $100,000 bonus last weekend at Martinsville Speedway, but is not entered here.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jesse Love, driver of the #2 Whelen Chevrolet, drives during qualifying for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo by Michael C. Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

Smith qualified fourth at 29.140-seconds and 185.312 mph in the No. 81 QuickTie Toyota Supra. Creed will start 15th<\/sup> in the 38-car field after lapping at 29.553-seconds and 182.723 mph in the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota. Allgaier will start sixth after lapping at 29.154-seconds and 185.223 mph in the No. 7 BRANDT\/TradeMark Nitrogen Chevy Camaro. And Mayer will roll off 10th<\/sup> after hot-lapping at 29.372-seconds and 183.849 mph in the No. 1 Carolina Carports Camaro.<\/p>\n

Ironically, none of the four eligible drivers have previously won an Xfinity race at TMS. Allgaier has a best finish of second in 2021 and has placed among the top-five in four of his last five starts. He also qualified on-pole last season. Teammate Mayer has a best finish of third in 2022 among four career starts.<\/p>\n

Smith posted a fourth-place finish in his only TMS start last season while Creed has a best result of seventh in 2022 in three starts. But Creed also scored a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory here in 2020. Smith is off to a hot start this season via a pair of wins and a perfect seven top-10 finishes in as many starts.<\/p>\n

Media Center Interview<\/h3>\n

NXS Pole Winner Jesse Love (No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet) – <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio FORT WORTH \u2013 NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie Jesse Love certainly knows how to get to the point. Love notched his third pole of the 2024 season Friday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway in his latest bid to bag his first series victory in Saturday afternoon\u2019s Andy\u2019s Frozen Custard 300. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":678,"featured_media":45422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[913,912,16,181,21],"class_list":["post-45418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-texas-motor-speedway","tag-andys-frozen-custard-300","tag-jesse-love","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-xfinity-series","tag-texas-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Love2.jpg?fit=1080%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-bOy","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/678"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45418"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45427,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45418\/revisions\/45427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}