Jesse Love Headshot
Jesse
Love
Jesse Love is the driver of the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Camaro SS for Richard Childress Racing. Although he’s just 18 years old, 2024 marks Love’s 13th year in racing, and first year competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Danny Stockman serves as crew chief.
In 2023, Love posted one of the most dominating performances in recent ARCA Menards Series history, winning half of the races on the series schedule enroute to the 2023 ARCA Menards Series Championship.
Love made his NASCAR Truck Series debut in 2023, competing in three races and earning a career-best finish of fourth at Phoenix Raceway in November.
Love became the youngest champion in NASCAR history by clinching his first ARCA Menards Series West title at the age of 16 in 2020. He also clinched the title in 2021. In total, Love owns 12 victories in ARCA Menards Series West competition and one victory in ARCA Menards Series East Competition.
At just 10 years old, Love made his stock car racing debut in the MavTV Jr. Late Model Series and won in his first-career start. He became a two-time champion and the winningest driver in the history of the series.
Love’s passion for racing started at a young age. At the age of five, he began driving quarter-midgets throughout the San Francisco Bay area before advancing to full midgets and sprint cars, accumulating six United States Automobile Club (USAC) Championships in the USAC Speed 2 Ford Focus division.
Outside of racing, Love enjoys spending time with friends, wake surfing, cooking, fishing, playing golf and video games.
Love is a native of Menlo Park, California. He currently resides in Huntersville, North Carolina.
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Danny Stockman serves as crew chief of the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with driver Jesse Love at Richard Childress Racing. The 2025 season marks the second year that the veteran crew chief has been paired with Love, and the duo is hoping to build off of a successful 2024 season that saw the first-year Xfinity Series driver earn rookie of the year honors on the strength of a race win at Talladega Superspeedway, seven top-five finishes and 18 top-10 finishes. They finished eighth in the final point standings, narrowly missing a Championship Four berth.
Stockman has more than 450 starts as a crew chief across NASCAR’s top-three national tours, notably guiding Austin Dillon to a NASCAR Truck Series championship and a NASCAR Xfinity Series championship in 2011 and 2013, respectively. He is a second-generation crew chief, a third-generation racer and owns seven NASCAR Xfinity Series wins and 14 NASCAR Truck Series wins as a crew chief.
After a successful stint in various crew chief roles at RCR from 2010 through 2019, Stockman departed the 55-year-old racing organization from 2020 through 2023 to work with Kyle Busch Motorsports and its technical alliance partner Rev Racing, most recently guiding rookie Nick Sanchez to two top-five and 12 top-10 finishes in the NASCAR Truck Series in 2023. Stockman earned a total of nine Truck Series wins as a crew chief for Kyle Busch Motorsports, working with Chandler Smith, Alex Tagliani, Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst and Kyle Busch.
Stockman guided Dillon for a full season in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2020, earning six top-10 finishes and three pole awards. He worked two seasons with Daniel Hemric in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (2017-2018) at RCR and spent the 2016 and 2015 seasons on a multi-driver program working with Paul Menard, Ben Kennedy, Sam Hornish, Jr., Austin Dillon, Brandon Jones and Ty Dillon. Stockman ran a full campaign with T. Dillon in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2014. All told, Stockman earned seven wins, 80 top-five, 148 top-10s and 19 pole awards in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition for RCR.
Notably, Stockman guided A. Dillon to the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship in 2013 on the strength of 13 top-five finishes, 22 top-10 finishes and a series’ high seven pole awards. He guided Dillon to two wins, three pole awards, 16-top five and 27 top-10 finishes in his first full year as a crew chief in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2012.
With Stockman as crew chief, Dillon earned the 2011 NASCAR Truck Series driving championship, with two wins (Nashville Superspeedway and Chicagoland Speedway) among 10 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes. In just his first year as a crew chief in NASCAR’s nationally touring truck series, Stockman guided Dillon to Rookie of the Year honors in 2010 on the strength of two wins (Iowa and Las Vegas), seven pole awards, 16 top-10 finishes and seven top-fives. Stockman earned his first win as a crew chief at Iowa Speedway in July of 2010, just 11 races into his tenure as crew chief of the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet.
Stockman was truck chief for Ron Hornaday, Jr. and the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. team from 2006 through 2009, where he earned two championships (’07 and ’09) and 18 race wins.
Stockman served as truck chief for Orleans Racing’s No. 77 team with driver Brendan Gaughan in 2005 and the No. 62 team with Steve Park in 2004. He won the 2003 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Division championship as car chief for Scott Lynch and the No. 08 Orleans Racing team, earning three wins, seven top-five and 10 top-10 finishes.
A former racer himself, Stockman drove Super Late Models on the West coast from 2000 to 2003 before employment at Orleans Racing. He is also an experienced go-kart racer, earning victories and championships in his native California.
Stockman traveled with his father, former Truck Series crew chief Gary Stockman, to half of the series’ races from 1996-1999. He is a third-generation racer, as his grandfather (Harry) attempted to qualify for the 1953 Indianapolis 500, and his father (Gary) was a Truck Series crew chief for former driver Rick McCrae.
A Yucaipa, California, native, Stockman currently resides in Winston-Salem, NC. Married to Alexis.
