The NASCAR Xfinity Series visited Atlanta Motor Speedway for the second race of the 2024 season. Providing a drafting-based style of racing that can produce either intense door to door action, or single file trains depending on the stage of the race, the track’s reconfigured layout has produced some very exciting, hectic races since it’s implementation.
Today’s race, for the most part, was not one of them.
19-year old rookie and 2023 ARCA Menards Series champion Jesse Love dominated the entire evening, and picked up his first career Xfinity Series win in just his second attempt.
Wait a second… no he didn’t.
Thanks to a caution with two to go, and a final stage that had run green up to that point, Love was forced to stretch it on fuel, and simply didn’t have enough in the tank to make it to the end. That allowed Austin Hill – who managed to save JUST enough – to sneak by and steal the win from his teammate. Sometimes, the NASCAR gods just don’t want to smile down on you – this was one of those nights for Love.
Regardless, you know RCR has to be thrilled with what they saw from their rookie driver, and Love showed that he will be a force in 2024.
Despite what we have seen at Atlanta – and the Xfinity Series in general – in the past, todays race was marked by a field that minded their manners exceptionally well, as there was only one caution for an incident all race, prompted by JJ Yeley spinning off the nose of Kyle Weatherman in stage two (and making a fantastic save to avoid collecting any other cars). Beyond that, Love started on pole, and never looked back for the entire race, winning both stages easily.
The only real drama for Love prior to the finish came at the start of the final stage when AJ Allmendinger, thanks to a bit of pit strategy, was able to take the lead. Love took the inside line on the restart and after a few laps of intense side by side battling was able to retake the lead. From there it was just eyes ahead and head down for Love.
However, with the entire final stage running green, fuel milage became a concern – and unfortunately, the Fords didn’t make it. With three laps to go, Riley Herbst, Cole Custer, Ryan Sieg, and Hallie Deegan ran out of fuel almost simultaneously. Sieg ended up running out of momentum and stopping on track, bringing out a caution.
Under that caution, most of the leaders stayed out, despite running on fumes. The first car to hit pit road was Brandon Jones in eighth, who brought with him a gaggle of cars unwilling to take the gamble on fuel. NASCAR then puzzlingly extended the yellow flag period, forcing the leaders to stretch their fuel even further – extending the race by a full six laps including overtime.
The race went back to green with Love on the outside and Kligerman on the inside, both set to contend for their first career wins – but both drivers almost immediately ran out of fuel. In fact, nearly all of the cars that stayed out ran out of fuel. That opened the door for… guess who… Austin Hill to steal the win, allowing him to open the 2024 season with back to back wins. Love would end up coming home 12th.
Behind Austin Hill, Chandler Smith came home P2, Shane van Gisbergen collected a P3 finish in just his second career race, while Sheldon Creed & Parker Retzlaff rounded out the top-five. Jeremy Clements, Anthony Alfredo, and Jeffrey Earnhardt came home P6-P8, bringing home three really solid finishes for some small operations.
Image credit – NASCAR Xfinity Series on X
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