Jesse Love takes O’Reilly Series Chase lead with Phoenix win

Jesse Love won the Timberland PRO 200 at Phoenix Raceway in Arizona on October 17, moving from second to first in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase standings. The result puts him 36 points ahead of Justin Allgaier with three races remaining in the nine-race Chase.

Love held off Sam Mayer at the finish, winning by 0.128 seconds, according to Racing News’s race results. Allgaier finished third, 2.200 seconds behind Love. The result gave Love the race victory as well as the points lead he had entered Phoenix chasing.

How Love built his Phoenix points lead

The standings reported after six of the nine Chase races put Love on 2,367 points. Allgaier is second on 2,331, while Corey Day is third on 2,328, 39 points behind Love. Day finished fourth at Phoenix, behind Allgaier, according to Racing News’s results.

Sheldon Creed loses ground after power failure

Sheldon Creed had led the standings before Phoenix, according to The Tennessean. He finished second to Love in the opening stage, but suffered a reported power failure during the stage break and had to be pushed to pit road, On3 reported. By the time racing resumed, he was three laps down.

Creed finished 32nd, two laps down, in the results published by Racing News. He dropped to fourth in the Chase standings, behind Love, Allgaier and Day. The Tennessean and On3 give conflicting figures for his deficit to Love, so his exact points gap is unclear from their reports.

Mayer’s second-place finish at Phoenix was not enough to put him among the top four in the standings: The Tennessean lists him sixth, 86 points behind Love. Carson Kvapil is fifth, 79 points back. Those positions show how the race result and the Chase order differed as the series entered its final three races.