Jesse Love Finds Toledo Victory Lane in Glass City 200

One year ago, Jesse Love was on the verge of a victory at Toledo Speedway in the ARCA Menards Series before late-race contact relegated him to second place. On Saturday night with the ASA STARS National Tour, Love picked up redemption in the form of the Hearn Industrial Glass City 200 win.

Love took the lead with 60 laps to go in the race when the top two drivers in series points, Ty Majeski and Cole Butcher, both ran out of fuel while battling for the lead. From there, Love took advantage of clean air and a fast Wilson Motorsports race car to take the win in the eighth race of the STARS season.

“Obviously, me and my Toyota teammate William Sawalich had a great race here last year," said Love in victory lane. "I got free and came out on the short end of the stick that time. This time, me and Bond just made sure, don’t get free. Even though we were still a little bit free at the end, I think everyone else was a little freer.”

Love was also thrilled to be back in victory lane with a Super Late Model. While the California native has won nine times this season in the ARCA Menards Series, success in the Late Models have been harder to come by.

“I’m just so happy to win a Super Late race again. I feel like I don’t do a good job in these things. I don’t know what it is. I finally think we all did a good job as a team tonight. Me and Bond [Suss], I don’t think we were the fastest all night tonight, but we stuck with what we thought was right. Make the thing tight as heck, and let everyone else come to us when they get free.

“Obviously, we were pretty free the last stage. We probably lucked out going green to checkered, obviously getting track position and things like that.”

Even after Love took the lead, there were a couple of tense moments. Namely, after watching Majeski and Butcher run out of fuel on lap 140, as well as Gio Ruggiero in another Wilson Motorsports car running into the same issue five laps later, had Love hoping he'd have enough fuel to reach the end of stage two at lap 150.

Once he managed to do that with the lead, he was able to come to pit road with the rest of the field, get the fuel needed to finish the race, and prepare for the final 50 laps.

“I think I barely popped the gas for two seconds each lap trying to save as much as I could, rocking it back and forth. Trying to keep anything in the tank, whatever was left. I didn’t even think I saved as hard as Cole was. Maybe I just saved a bit more under green. I was nervous and shaking.”

Butcher recovered from running out of fuel, as well as a spin early in the third stage after contact with Albert Francis, to finish in second place, closing the gap on Majeski in the points.

“I just can’t thank Wilson Motorsports and my guys enough for putting in such hard work these last couple of days," said Butcher. "P2, but it was a pretty good points day. Congrats to Jesse Love, Bond, Dennis and Will. We’ll work on Winchester."

As for Majeski, he suffered an engine failure and retired his car while under caution at the second stage break, relegating him to a 13th-place finish.

“Yeah, the motor let go," said Majeski. "Unfortunate. We had a good car, one that could compete for the win, but it wasn’t meant to be today.”

Chase Burda finished third, with Bubba Pollard and Andrik Dimayuga rounding out the top five.

The ASA STARS National Tour has two races left on its inaugural schedule, and both are among the most prestigious and historic events in Late Model racing. On October 15, the series will tackle the high banks of Winchester Speedway for the Winchester 400. The season concludes on November 5 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway with the All American 400.

-Photo credit: Daniel Vining/ASA STARS National Tour

ASA STARS NATIONAL TOUR HEARN INDUSTRIAL GLASS CITY 200 UNOFFICIAL RESULTS