2025 O’Reilly champion Jesse Love begins title defense with all chips on the table

Jesse Love, oozing machismo, felt like a lone wolf last fall at Phoenix Raceway, battling the three-headed juggernaut that was JR Motorsports. With California swagger, though, he outlasted the competition to win his first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship.

Love’s championship reign begins this Saturday at Daytona International Speedway (5 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where he also enters as the defending race winner. He bookended the 2025 campaign with victories, stamping his name into the record book with some of NASCAR’s greatest drivers.

RELATED: Jesse Love driver page

“If you show up and are the right kind of champion, you still ride the wave, and the confidence is there because you can use the championship for the confidence boost that it is,” Love told NASCAR.com. “At the same time, it’s still business as usual when you get back into the swing of things. And if it’s not, it’s probably a negative thing because people can get complacent pretty easily.”

In the months following Phoenix, Love has realized that his expectations are sky-high and he won’t be satisfied until he reaches the pinnacle for the second time. As the series enters a new season, he is still riding the confidence wave but trying not to live in the glory of the championship.

The 2025 season was far from perfect for the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing camp. Love was “ridiculously consistent” throughout the year , but ended the season with nine top-five finishes, two more than his 2024 rookie campaign. His numbers were slightly better in top 10s (22 in 2025; 18 in 2024) and average finishing position (11.1 in 2025; 12.0 in 2024).

Even still, the No. 2 team, which looks identical to last year’s, aims to be better in 2026, including in qualifying, which it believes is its weakest area.

Danny Stockman, crew chief for Love, thinks improvement can come from all aspects.

“I stressed to my team this winter that it’s going to take more effort than last year did because we weren’t good enough last year at a lot of race tracks,” Stockman said. “We were good enough at the final one, and we executed, and we put ourselves in position to get to that point. There were a lot of areas that we needed to get better and that’s what we’ve been focusing on this winter.

“We have to step it up a notch, and I think this team is more than capable of that.”

Love and Stockman both believe that The Chase — the postseason format taking effect in 2026  — will not affect how the No. 2 team operates. The pairing emphasizes consistency, which Stockman has experienced with multiple drivers at this level with RCR.

“If you look at my stats over the years, when we won those championships with Austin [Dillon], it was consistency,” Stockman said, alluding to a season-long points battle in 2011 and 2013. “Jesse and Austin’s racing style of how they take care of their equipment and run all the laps and don’t cause problems, that is going to play big in this new format.”

The change is a positive one for Love, though he’s remaining steady in his approach.

“If you’re not going to perform in the first 24 races, you’re probably not going to go on a run the last nine races,” Love said. “As far as how it affects the drivers and teams, I don’t think it changes anything.”

Scouting the competition, Love believes 2024 series champion Justin Allgaier will be a viable threat again for the title in 2026. He also anticipates sophomore driver Taylor Gray and rookie Brent Crews from Joe Gibbs Racing will be tough to beat. Stockman added Sam Mayer to the list of stout competition.

“I don’t see a standout like we saw with Connor last year,” Stockman said. “I feel like it’s going to be a competitive season and a lot of winners.”

The end goal for Love is for 2026 to be his final year in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. He sprinkled in a handful of Cup Series starts with RCR and Beard Motorsports in 2025, earning a best finish of 24th (Indianapolis) with the No. 62 team. To jump to the Cup level, he knows he needs to win — often. Consider it motivation for the 21-year-old driver.

“I think that I’ve proven that I’m a champion, and that’s an important piece,” Love said. “I think I’m pretty complete as a driver. I haven’t said this a whole lot yet, but if I’m not in a Cup car next year, then I don’t know what I will do, but sprint-car racing and stuff like that sounds very appetizing. I don’t plan on running a fourth year in an [O’Reilly] car; I don’t plan on doing anything else in 2027 but getting into a Cup car full-time. I plan on this year becoming as perfect as I can in every aspect of racing to put myself in position to be able to achieve that.”

MORE: Daytona Speedweeks schedule  | O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule

Wholeheartedly, Love believes that had there been an opening to jump to Cup in 2026, he would have been able to hold his own and punch above his weight class. However, he isn’t certain that he would be able to operate “at a crazy high level” and win in his first couple of years behind the wheel.

“There’s probably no option but going into a Cup car if you win a bunch of races,” Love said. “What I plan on doing this year is winning another championship and winning a lot of races and that will force me to a Cup car. I’m also aware that next year, a driver could do everything right and not achieve those goals and that could keep them out of a car even if they are capable of doing it.

“I feel very confident with the people we have around RCR and where we’re starting off this year, to be able to win a lot of races and secure my future. To answer your question bluntly, I feel if I do everything right next year, I don’t even know if I want to say it out loud. But I do love sprint-car racing a lot, I do love midget-racing a lot and dirt-racing in general and I don’t plan on racing a fourth year in an [O’Reilly] car by any means next year.”