DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — It was unclear for a moment what exactly happened at the end of Saturday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, but Jesse Love made it clear with an exceptional burnout in the Daytona International Speedway grass:

He’d won.

Love earned the win by leading 30 laps and leaving nothing to chance in the overtime period — leading that final restart from beginning to end. There was a wreck in that final overtime period, but the caution flag didn’t fly until Love had taken the white flag, delivering him the season-opening victory.

Sam Mayer finished second in a race that featured eight cautions for 38 laps and 24 lead changes among 11 different leaders. Sheldon Creed took third.

Before Love took the win, it looked to be Austin Hill’s race. The Richard Childress Racing driver of the 21 car won the first and second stages with ease — he was vying for the record of four straight season-opening NASCAR wins at Daytona. The only ones who’ve won three Xfinity Series season openers in a row? Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart.

But then his fates changed. Mechanical issues on Lap 89 forced Hill to the garage and ended his contending chances.

Hill’s departure to the infield split the race’s two big moments before the checkered flag swooped down.

The first came in Lap 87, when Kris Wright appeared to have braking issues as he approached pit road, crashing into Josh Bilicki’s car and prompting a caution. Wright was asked after the race on the CW broadcast what happened, and Wright said “communication issues” with his spotter was the cause of the blunder. It’s not clear what those communication issues were, however.

The second came in Lap 113, seven laps away from the end of regulation, where Justin Allgaier made contact with Justin Bonsignore, who then collected Anthony Alfredo and Sammy Smith. The caution came out, and the track didn’t get cleared until three laps to go.

There was another blip with two laps to go. Connor Zilisch was racing in the middle of the pack and then got turned into the wall, collecting some others. That forced the day’s seventh caution and overtime.

There was another caution in overtime — but not until Love had received the white flag.

©2025 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.