Love dominated much of the rain-delayed race, leading 40 of the 60 laps and cruising to a more than 3-second win over Connor Mosack.
The 18-year-old from Menlo Park, Calif., has now won five of the 10 races this season and across a variety of tracks – superspeedways, intermediates and short tracks.
“I felt disappointed about yesterday’s outcome, as my teammate surpassed me in qualifying,” expressed Love, the driver of Venturini Motorsports’ No. 20 Toyota. “However, I didn’t mind the rain delay as it gave me the opportunity to further study and improve my knowledge on restarts and starts, which I was not completely confident about.”
Today, the car I had was not performing well. There was some issue that affected its performance. Specifically, I noticed a slight decrease in power during the last two laps on the straight section, which left me confused. As a result, I pushed myself to the limit during the final stretch in order to avoid any interference from slower cars.
Andres Perez de Lara ultimately secured the third position, although there was a moment when he appeared to be the most formidable contender against Love for the victory.
Perez de Lara, who overtook Love in the beginning of the race and was in the lead for a few laps, was struck from behind during a restart with 15 laps remaining by Dean Thompson, causing him to collide with Mosack. This incident resulted in damage to Perez de Lara’s vehicle, requiring him to make a pit stop. However, he managed to recover and ultimately finished in third place.
Thompson, who began in the first position, finished in fourth place, while Conner Jones completed the top five.
Perez de Lara’s third-place finish propelled them to second position in the series rankings, trailing Love by 69 points with 10 races left in the current season.
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