DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In NASCAR Overtime, Jesse Love made a bold move on the restart that ultimately earned him the win in the United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway.

Love, the driver of the Richard Childress Racing No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet, pulled down in front of Sam Mayer on the final restart of the night in NASCAR Overtime. Love just barely squeezed in front, but he continued leading the race. As Love crossed the start-finish line to take the white flag, the pack crashed behind him, ending the race. The victory marks Love’s first at Daytona and his second in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

“I mean, this is the only place I cry during the National Anthem, or kind of get emotional,” Love said. “I’m an emotional guy, as everybody knows, and I try not to hide it. But this place is special. You come up racing here when I was at New Smyrna (Speedway) and just wanting to be a part of it, wanting to have the prestige of winning here and say the Lord’s name on a big stage.

“Obviously when you get to race for Richard (Childress), too, that is an added layer of kind of emotion when you come to these places. And what makes it more special is it’s a place that I’ve showed at in the past and worked really hard to overcome my struggles here. That makes it even more special because I stuck with the path, and there were days where it was hard, but still powered through it and gave it 100 percent of what I have.

While the race-winning move on the final restart was a ‘go big or go home’ type of moment, Love knew that he had to capitalize on the opportunity if he was going to win the race. Once in front, Mayer immediately got his bumper and began pushing.

“But yeah, I kind of knew that if I didn’t get down that we were probably going to lose the race,” Love said. “Whether or not I was clear, I knew that that was the only move I could make. Had to kind of get down there, and if I wasn’t clear, hope that I kind of knock him down, then I kind of stalled and let him out and then I could still be the leader. But regardless of the situation, we were just clear enough, and I kind of thought I was clear, but then by the time I got kind of to his bumper, he was, like, connected immediately.”

Mayer held on to finish second in the season opener. This year, he’s racing for Haas Factory Team after competing for JR Motorsports for four seasons. On Saturday, Mayer didn’t lead any laps or score any stage points, but he was there at the end when it mattered most.

“Yeah, I’m definitely going to go look at it and see if I can do anything better because I’m definitely learning as we go,” Mayer said. “But huge props to this team. This Audibel Ford Mustang was really, really fast today. I am super proud to be up at the front with these guys, especially with a new team like this. They worked really hard this offseason to make cars as fast as Xfinity Mobile, but so far, so good.”

Sheldon Creed, also a Haas Factory Team driver, finished third. Creed ran up front all race long, leading seven laps and finishing second in Stage 1 and third in Stage 2.

“Yeah, I don’t know,” said Creed when asked what he could’ve done differently. “Getting control of the race, obviously. I mean, I tried. I tried to go by the 2 (Love) there with 15, 20 to go and got by him once and then got next to him another time and just didn’t quite have the help out back that I needed. But the RCR car was just really fast and he could rebound really quickly like as I’d go by him, he could rebound and go right back by me where it took me a couple laps to kind of think it out. Overall, I know we talked before, I would just go try to be aggressive and keep myself up front, and I thought we did all that well.”

In only his 10^th series start, Carson Kvapil finished fourth after sustaining heavy damage early in the race. Taylor Gray completed the top-five. Rounding out the top-10 was Harrsion Burton, Jordan Anderson, Dean Thompson, Jeremy Clements and Patrick Emerling.

Austin Hill won Stages 1 and 2, and he also led a race high of 56 laps; however, he retired from the race and finished a disappointing 33^rd after suffering a mechanical issue.

There were eight cautions for 39 laps.

The first caution of the day occurred on Lap 7, when Brandon Jones was turned in the middle of the pack. Five other drivers were collected as well.

On Lap 114, contact with Justin Allgaier in Turn 2 sent Justin Bonsignore spinning in the middle of the field. The five-car crash also included Anthony Alfredo, who lost a left rear tire during the mayhem.

The field was a half a lap away from taking the white flag, when Connor Zilisch was turned hard into the outside wall on the backstretch. Zilisch was being pushed by Allgaier, when the field stacked up. Sawalich, Sammy Smith and others were involved as well.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series will visit Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, Feb. 22 for the Bennett 250. Live coverage will broadcast on CW at 5 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Mitchell White/TheFourthTurn.com