Jesse Love celebrates after winning Saturday night’s ARCA Menards Series race at Salem Speedway. Photo: ARCA Menards Series
Jesse Love began Saturday night by clinching the 2023 ARCA Menards Series championship. He simply needed to start the penultimate race of the season to solidify the title.
He ended the night in victory lane at Indiana’s Salem Speedway after leading every lap for the 10th win of his championship season.
Talk about a banner evening for the 18-year-old Venturini Motorsports driver from Menlo Park, California.
“Obviously it feels great,” Love said. “I love Salem. It’s my favorite asphalt short track for sure. It’s always cool to come here, a place that I’ve really come to know really well and respect.”
Love, the 2020 and 2021 ARCA Menards Series West champion, entered Saturday night with a 131-point lead over second-place Andres Perez in the championship standings. His title was an inevitability by the time the green flag flew for Saturday night’s race.
The beginning of the event, at least, appeared as though it would be a tough night for the champ. Throughout the beginning third of the event, William Sawalich hounded Love as the leader failed to put space between himself and the second-place driver.
Then, on a restart on lap 71, everything changed.
Battling for the top spot going into turns 3-4, Love, racing below Sawalich, attempted to slide in front of his rival.
That worked, but the move left Sawalich no space to battle back. Sawalich hit the wall and almost immediately suffered a flat tire.
Sawalich was forced to pit, which put him several laps down and knocked him out of contention.
The second of two key moments as they related to Love’s win was Will Kimmel’s mechanical failure just past the race’s halfway point.
One of the only drivers who seemingly was able to keep pace with Love, Kimmel, a track champion at Salem, dropped out of the race shortly after pitting.
Fellow ARCA Menards Series rookie Andres Perez finished second behind Love at Salem. Christian Rose, another rookie in the series, finished third and earned himself a new career-high mark.
Toni Breidinger finished in fourth, with Conner Popplewell, who was making his ARCA Menards Series debut Saturday, in fifth.
Sawalich, Jon Garrett, Ed Pompa, Brayton Laster, and Frankie Muniz finished rounded out the top 10.
The ARCA Menards Series will race again next week, when it heads to Ohio’s Toledo Speedway for the season finale.
ARCA Menards Series
Salem Speedway – Salem, IN
Atlas 200 – September 30, 2023
1. Jesse Love
2. Andres Perez
3. Christian Rose
4. Toni Breidinger
5. Conner Popplewell
6. William Sawalich
7. Jon Garrett
8. Ed Pompa
9. Brayton Laster
10. Frankie Muniz
11. Zachary Tinkle
12. Brent Crews
13. Will Kimmel
14. Kevin Hinkle
15. Alex Clubb
16. Brad Smith
17. Tim Monroe
18. Mike Basham
19. Nate Moeller
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