Jesse Love, the defending NASCAR O’Reily Auto Parts Series Champion, embarks on his third year driving the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing in 2026. The Menlo Park, California native is paired with crew chief Danny Stockman.

Love’s first two seasons at the helm of the No. 2 Chevrolet have been nothing short of spectacular, highlighted by clinching the series title in 2025 just one year after earning Rookie of the Year Honors. Love bookended the 2025 season with wins at the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway as well as the finale at Phoenix Raceway. In addition to two wins, Love earned nine top five finishes and 22 top 10 finishes during the course of the season, and four pole awards (Atlanta Motor Speedway – February, Talladega Superspeedway – April and October and Iowa Speedway). Combined with his career-first NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win at Talladega Superspeedway in April 2024, Love is a three-time winner in the series and a nine-time pole award winner.

Love made his NASCAR Cup Series debut in 2025, splitting time between RCR’s No. 33 Chevrolet and Beard Motorsports’ No. 62 entry. In five Cup Series starts, he earned his best finish of 24th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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 stars in RISING, a multi-part documentary series offering an unprecedented look inside the lives of three young, up-and-coming NASCAR drivers as they established their identities both on and off the track.

Love is a native of Menlo Park, California. He currently resides in Huntersville, North Carolina.

Danny Stockman serves as crew chief of the No. 2 Chevrolet with reigning NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love at Richard Childress Racing. The 2026 season marks the third year that the veteran crew chief has been paired with Love.

Stockman guided Love to the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Driver’s Championship in 2025, earning wins at both the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway and the season finale at Phoenix Raceway, along with four pole awards at Atlanta Motor Speedway (February), Talladega Superspeedway (April and October) and Iowa Speedway. During their first year working together in 2024, Stockman led Love to the Rookie of the Year title 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 in 2024, narrowly missing a Championship 4 berth.

Stockman has more than 450 starts as a crew chief across NASCAR’s top-three national tours. In addition to his 2025 championship season with Love, Stockman won a NASCAR Truck Series championship and a NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series championship in 2011 and 2013, respectively, with Austin Dillon. He is a second-generation crew chief, a third-generation racer and owns 10 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts 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 race team from 2020 through 2023 to work with Kyle Busch Motorsports and its technical alliance partner Rev Racing. Under Stockman’s tutelage, rookie Nick Sanchez earned two top-five and 12 top-10 finishes in the NASCAR Truck Series in 2023. Stockman won nine Truck Series races 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 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (2017-2018) at RCR and spent the 2015 and 2016 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 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2014. All told, Stockman has earned 10 wins, 96 top-five finishes, 188 top-10 finishes and 28 pole awards in NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competition.

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. He was the 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 finishes 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, N.C. Married to Alexi