PixelatedRESULTS: Jesse Love Wins ARCA West Visit to Irwindale
IRWINDALE, California (July 4, 2020) — Jesse Love scored his second career ARCA Menards Series West win on Saturday evening, winning the ENEOS 125 at Irwindale Speedway. Love started from the pole, led the most laps, and fended off a late race challenge by second place Trevor Huddleston.
The 125 lap event had six cautions, subsequently creating six restarts. With each restart, Love had to either get the jump on second place, or fight back on the highside to retain the top spot.
Huddleston was able to sneak by on the next to last restart, briefly taking the lead before falling back to second after the final restart.
“It was a really cool weekend,” said Love in victory lane. “The restarts were definitely tricky, mainly because Trevor has got them down… he’s run here so much. He kind of knew how to manipulate them and I was just kind of slipping the tires on the start, I’m not sure if second gear or third gear was the better option.”
Huddleston echoed the struggle to find the right gear for the restarts.
We went through different types of gears trying to see if I was able to get the jump on him,” said Huddleston. “He was really on top of his game tonight. He was going to be tough to beat, and I got him right there at the end and if that caution hadn’t come out it was probably going to be a pretty close battle similar to last year. He had a great car and had a great drive off and there was a couple times where I thought we were going to get him but in the end he won, did a great job, it was an awesome race… P2, I can’t complain… I just got to work on that one spot more.”
And Now… The Race Rundown:
Jesse Love captured the pole for the event, with Trevor Huddleston in second.
The pair broke away cleanly from third place Gio Scelzi on the start by two car lengths, then stepped out to a straightaway lead on the field.
As Todd Souza, Devin Dodson, and Brittney Zamora traded spots and swapped paint in the back of the top ten, Gracie Trotter showed some strength, advancing into the fourth spot around Blaine Perkins by lap 20.
The first caution of the day flew on lap 41 for Bridget Burgess, who spun coming off of turn two.
Throughout the race, several cars were smoking the right rear tires as they flew along the top groove lap after lap.
More smoke flew, of the spinning kind, on lap 77 after Zamora and Holley Hollan made contact in turn one to bring out the second yellow. Hollan spun, and both made contact with the wall, but both also continued on.
Lap 84 would see Jack Wood go for a long, sliding spin into the infield off of turn four for the race’s third caution period.
With 29 laps to go, caution number four flew after Hollan spun in turn one, making slight contact with Wood in the process.
On lap 110, Todd Souza dove very low on Lawless Alan, making contact in turn four, sending Alan spinning to bring out the yellow for the fifth time.
On the ensuing restart with 11 to go, Huddleston was able to take the lead from Love. On the next lap, Blaine Perkins made contact with Gio Scelzi in turn one that sent Scelzi backing hard into the turn two wall for the race’s sixth, and final caution.
The final restart came with five laps to go, and Jesse Love was able to scoot past Huddleston, and on to the win. On the restart, Gracie Trotter found her way by Blaine Perkins to finish in third, with Perkins in fourth. Devin Dodson ran a quiet and clean race, taking the fifth spot.
Unofficial Results from the ENEOS 125 at Irwindale Speedway:
| 1. | 19 – Jesse Love |
| 2. | 6 – Trevor Huddleston |
| 3. | 99 – Gracie Trotter |
| 4. | 9 – Blaine Perkins |
| 5. | 7 – Devin Dodson |
| 6. | 8 – Johnny Borneman III |
| 7. | 13 – Todd Souza |
| 8. | 11 – Dustin Ash |
| 9. | 12 – Lawless Alan |
| 10. | 77 – Takuma Koga |
| 11. | 50 – Holley Hollan |
| 12. | 88 – Bridget Burgess |
| 13. | 42 – Brittney Zamora |
| 14. | 16 – Gio Scelzi |
| 15. | 78 – Jack Wood |
| 16. | 27 – Bobby Hillis Jr. |
– Daniel Vining, Twitter: @danielvining
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