Having captured his fourth victory of the 2023 ARCA Menards Series season, the Menards 250 was another dominant showing by 18 year old Jesse Love. The day saw challenging weather conditions which went on to impact the schedule, prematurely ending the first practice session and canceling both the second practice session and qualifying. However, starting from second position, Love was immediately able to overtake the No.18 car to put the No. 20 JBL Toyota Camry in the lead.
Love would go on to lead a total of 233 laps in the 250 lap race, with the first stint being held for 122 laps.
Following his victory at Elko Speedway, Love had nothing but praise for his crew chief Shannon Rursch and the improvements made to the car throughout the race, “Fixed center first, then first race break we fixed the entry, and the next break we fixed the exit. I mean you can’t pay a guy enough to do that. Hats off to him.”
Hingorani finished the day in third, matching his career best main series finish from the weekend prior.
In his third ARCA Menards Series start of the season Love’s teammate, Sean Hingorani in the No. 15, was able to match his career best ARCA finish from the weekend prior with a third place finish. Just behind him was another VMS Camry, the No. 25 of Conner Jones. Jones achieved his career best ARCA finish, crossing the line in fourth. The fourth VMS car, the No. 55 of Toni Breidinger, suffered a rear flat mid race. Despite the setback, Breidinger was able to come back through the field for an impressive 9th place finish.
Love’s most recent victory further extends the record set by Venturini Motorsports as winningest team in the history of the series. With a monumental 90th win under their belt, the team is already looking to reach an unprecedented 100th. VMS is now 15 races into the 2023 season with a collection of seven wins to show for their efforts. As the team dives further into this historic season, competing in all three series, there are still 20 races scheduled for the team.
The next round of the 2023 ARCA Menards Series Championship, the Zinsser SmartCoat 150, is slated for July 7th at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The race will be viewable through FS1 at 6pm ET.
