Car: No. 2 | Team:Richard Childress Racing | Manufacturer: Chevrolet
Crew Chief: Danny Stockman | Sponsors: Samsara, Whelen
Status: Full-time | Hometown: Menlo Park, California | Age: 21
2026 Season
Jesse Love drives the Richard Childress Racing No. 2 Chevrolet in the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Current points and Chase status are shown in the live stats on this page as official results are loaded.
Career
Love won the 2025 O'Reilly Series championship in just his second full-time season, making him one of the youngest champions in series history. The California native graduated through the JR Motorsports development pipeline before joining RCR's No. 2 program. He brings a precision style that stands out in a series that often rewards aggression over consistency.
Corey Day led 136 of 201 laps from the pole, then had to take the lead back from Carson Kvapil twice in the last 12. Sheldon Creed kept the Chase lead, now 19 points over Kvapil, after Justin Allgaier was caught in an early crash.
Sheldon Creed passed William Sawalich on an overtime restart and won the Food City 300 at Bristol by 0.253 seconds, leading only the final three laps. Carson Kvapil and Jesse Love led 240 laps between them and finished 24th and 17th. Creed now leads the O'Reilly Series Chase by 11 points over Justin Allgaier with six races left.
Jesse Love took the lead with fifteen laps to go and won the Nu Way 225 at World Wide Technology Raceway, his first victory of 2026. Sheldon Creed finished second and left St. Louis leading the O'Reilly Series Chase by three points over Justin Allgaier, who has won six races this season to Creed's two.
Justin Allgaier ended the regular season 229 points clear. The Chase reset left him 25 ahead of teammate Carson Kvapil going into Saturday's Fleetio 200 at Darlington, where Allgaier has four spring wins and none in the fall.
The NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series opens its first Chase on Saturday night at Darlington. The 12 drivers, the reset points, the track history, the tire and the schedule.
Justin Allgaier came from 16th through 13 cautions and three red flags to win the Focused Health 250 at Atlanta, his sixth O'Reilly Series win of the season. He now leads the championship by 240 points.
Austin Hill has five wins at Atlanta, tied with Kevin Harvick for the most in NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series history. On Saturday, in his home state, he can break the tie. Justin Allgaier's 195-point lead looks safe, but his form has quietly cooled over the last month.
Brandon Jones started 29th at Chicagoland, led 12 of 201 laps, and won the Cuervo 300 in overtime, the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series' first extra-lap finish of 2026. Chase Elliott and Connor Zilisch led 126 laps and won both stages between them. They left with zero points.
NASCAR and the Rolling Stones announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration this week: co-branded merch, two collector vinyl pressings of the new album Foreign Tongues, and a listening-lounge show car touring Chicago. It reads like a cash grab. The idea underneath it is real.
Justin Allgaier has already clinched the Chase, JR Motorsports has won 11 road races in a row, and the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series has never been more lopsided. This weekend it races a San Diego street course nobody has ever lapped, where all that homework counts for nothing. Saturday, 5 p.m. ET on the CW.