WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Jesse Love was in position to win the Mission 200 at the Glen Saturday (May 9) with an alternate pit strategy that saw him stretch fuel to the checkered flag.
Then came his best friend.
Love held an advantage of nearly 10 seconds over Connor Zilisch with 10 laps to go, but Zilisch was able to run him down on fresher tires and pass him in the final corner to take his third-straight O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory at the track.
Afterwards Love was crushed, despondent over errors that kept him from victory lane.
“There’s a hundred little mistakes that … let [Zilisch] get close,” Love told CW Sports after the race. “The glaring piece of it is that I had a bad corner. I had a bad corner.”
Love and Zilisch are the best of friends. They hang out together. Their families are friendly. It’s the sort of bond that would’ve come with refrigerator privileges at each other’s houses growing up – something that can be rare given the challenging friendship dynamics in motorsports.
They’re also both talented drivers, racers that often find themselves poised to compete against each other. Just last year, the NASCAR O’Reilly Series (then Xfinity Series) championship came down to a battle between the pair in Phoenix.
Zilisch had dominated the season, led a decent chunk of the race and held the top spot on the final restart. But Love clawed his way into the Championship 4 and proceeded to run him down and take the lead with 25 laps to go. From there, the Californian held on to win the race and championship in likely the only points format that could have yielded that outcome.
Saturday’s position should’ve felt familiar for both drivers, albeit with the roles reversed.
The 2023 General Tire 100 at the Glen was Zilisch’s ARCA Menards Series debut with Pinnacle Racing Group. After qualifying second, he was able to take the lead on lap 6 and led until a caution flew for Jack Wood going off-course.
During that yellow, it started raining, forcing everyone to stop in order to swap to rain tires. On the restart, Zilisch was able to sweep back into the lead.
Love restarted fifth and quickly moved up the order to second by the Inner Loop. Zilisch was the fastest driver on the day, but was dealing with a broken track bar in the closing laps.
Love was able to run Zilisch down and execute a bump-and-run into turn 11 to take the lead. From there, he outdragged Zilisch for the win.
Zilisch admitted during the post-race press conference Saturday that the finish reminded him of the ARCA race. The only difference is that Love nudged him to get the position.
Love and Zilisch are likely to spend the next decade-plus racing hard against each other, which means more moments like Saturday’s are certain to arise. They run in separate tours this year, but Love feels destined for a full-time leap into the Cup Series – perhaps as soon as next year. Once there, the two besties will have to deal with the turmoil that comes with dueling with your friend each week.
But while the emotional tax of racing a close friend can be tough on both drivers, they also tend to bring out the best in each other on the track.
Assuming that tradition holds, good things are likely to come from the duo as these situations arise again in the coming years.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the Frontstretch Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.