Jesse Love nearly secured his second victory of the 2025 Xfinity Series season at the Rockingham Speedway on Saturday. Despite crossing the checkered flag in first place, he was denied the win since his #2 Chevrolet was found violating rule 14.14.2.I-5.H. Here’s a brief explanation of what the disqualification was all about.
Advertisement
The mentioned rule states that all mating surfaces between the truck trailing arm and the U-bolt saddle must be in complete contact with each other. The rear axle housing in a car is bolted to the truck arm by a U-bolt. The rule states that all the pieces held together by this bolt must be in contact with each other.
Officials check the gap in the post-race inspection and make sure that none of the pieces are more than 0.010 inches apart from each other. There exists the possibility that such a gap has been induced due to contacts made during the race. Teams can appeal the levied penalty if they believe that to be the case.
So, why is a gap of 0.010 inches or more considered an infringement? The U-bolt could likely have been torqued to a lower value to promote more flex in the rear axle. Such a move would be advantageous for the car and improve performance. NASCAR disqualified Love under the assumption that his team committed this very act.
The rule states that all the pieces held together by this u-bolt must be in complete contact with each other and NASCAR will check the gap in post race teardown to make sure that none of these components are further apart than 0.010 inches from each other. pic.twitter.com/AfubEYXiSS
— Bozi Tatarevic (@BoziTatarevic) April 20, 2025
The official explanation from the Xfinity Series
The Xfinity Series director, Eric Peterson, explained that the parts must be touching each other and added, “Unfortunately, that was not the case when we did the tear down on the No. 2 car, and they were disqualified. They need to be tight and touching each other the whole time.”
Love ended up with a 37th-place finish. Sammy Smith, who finished in second place, was declared the winner. Considering that it was the Xfinity Series’ first race at the Rockingham Speedway in two decades, Smith was pleased with finishing second. Getting promoted as the winner was definitely a welcome change.
However, he did admit that Love had the better car of the two. He said, “The 2 car (Love) ultimately had the best car. Those guys did a good job, and I felt like we did a great job putting ourselves in position to be in second.” Just 20 years old, Jesse Love is quickly making a great name for himself in the sport.
He won the season opener at Daytona and is currently fourth on the points table. Hopefully, his result will get reinstated if and when Richard Childress Racing wins an appeal against the penalty.
