Jesse Love’s candid take after wrecking Connor Zilisch at Talladega: “He’s not dead, so that’s good”

The past two races have been an emotional roller rollercoaster for Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love. At Rockingham, after crossing the finish line ahead of all drivers and being declared the winner, he was stripped of his win. Meanwhile, at Talladega Superspeedway, he made contact with his best friend, Connor Zilisch and spun him out.

Love dominated Saturday's Ag Pro 300, winning stage one and securing a podium finish in stage two. Additionally, he led 50 laps in the 113-lap race. However, he was disappointed about the last-lap incident with Connor Zilisch and shared his thoughts on it during a post-race interview.

During the final moments of the race, Zilisch led the pack, but with just one lap to go, Jesse Love got a big push on the outside from his teammate, Austin Hill. This allowed Love to slide down to the middle lane for a pass on his friend, but the #88 driver tried maintaining his lead, resulting in a bump on the rear left, sending him into the infield wall.

Reflecting upon the unfortunate incident, Jesse Love asked the reporters about how Zilisch was feeling and told Frontstretch media (via YouTube):

"He's not dead, so that's good." [00:11]

The Richard Childress Racing driver further explained his disappointment in spinning his best friend and said:

"I don't know. Um, they say the thandom is illegal for a reason, because you always end up wrecking, and we were, we were thandoming there pretty hard, me and Connor, in the 21s, so, um, I don't, I don't know. I probably have to watch it a few times, but at that point, man, like all you can do is put yourself in positions at these races, and we do that, and we do it a lot, and the 21 has done it for a lot longer, so yeah, I think that there's definitely going to be things I could have done differently. I think I'm more upset that I turned the 88 around than I ran third." [00:25 onwards]

Jesse Love's teammate, Austin Hill, narrowly led the pack when the caution flag was thrown. Hill took the lead on the restart, allowing him to secure his 13th win in the series and first at Talladega Superspeedway. Meanwhile, the #2 Chevy driver finished third, and his best friend, Connor Zilisch, was in P27.

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After a post-race inspection, NASCAR stripped Jesse Love of the Rockingham Speedway win

Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love won last week's North Carolina Education Lottery 250 at Rockingham Speedway. But later, in a turn of events, the governing body disqualified Love after a post-race inspection.

Hours later, after the race and after the post-race inspection results came in, the governing body found an issue with the #2 Chevy's rear suspension that led to Love's disqualification. NASCAR credited the RCR driver with the second-to-last position (P38) for the race.

This led to a major change in the standings, with JR Motorsports driver Sammy Smith moving to P1 and securing his first win of the season. Followed by Parker Retzlaff moving to second place and AM Racing driver Harrison Burton clinching yet another podium finish in his career.