Michael Jordan's 23XI employee calls Jesse Love trophy drama a silly trend

JR Houston, the strategy and systems engineer of Michael Jordan's NASCAR team, has poked fun at Jesse Love's decision to hold on to his trophy. Last weekend, Love crossed the line at Rockingham Speedway to achieve victory, but was disqualified after the post-race inspection, giving the race win to the runner-up.

Earlier today, it was shared that the disqualified driver, who also had his appeal denied, has decided to hold on to the trophy at home, which prompted Houston to call his move a silly trend.

The 23XI Racing employee took to his X account to quote-tweet his reply to the news that came from NASCAR journalist Chris Knight:

"Jesse Love says he is keeping his Rockingham Speedway trophy and it is locked in the safe at his home, despite the disqualification."

In response to the actions of Love, Houston felt that his move was part of some kind of ridiculous fad.

"this is a silly trend lol"

The Richard Childress Racing driver was disqualified because his #2 Chevrolet was found to be in violation of Rule 14.14.2.I-5.h, which covers trailing arm spacers and pinion angle shims. According to series director Eric Peterson, the mating surfaces of those parts of Love's vehicle were supposed to be in contact with each other, and since they weren't, he was disqualified.

After the team made an appeal to revoke the disqualification, the National Motorsports Appeals Panel decided earlier this week to uphold the penalty handed to the driver.

“The panel finds that it is more likely than not that there was a violation of 14.14.2 Rear Suspension, I-5.H. The panel was unable to determine whether the violation was intentional or unintentional. The panel finds that the mating surfaces between the truck trailing arm and the U-bolt saddle were not in contact with each other," the panel stated, via NASCAR.

Jesse Love ended up with a 37th-place finish, while Sammy Smith of JR Motorsports was awarded the race win since he crossed the line in second place.

Jesse Love speaks out after clinching pole at Talladega

Jesse Love (2) during The LiUNA! race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, March 15th 2025 - Source: Imagn

After his disqualification last weekend, Jesse Love put in a lap time of 52.546 seconds with a top speed of 182.240 mph, which secured the pole position start for today's Ag-Pro 300 Xfinity Series event at Talladega Superspeedway. Speaking after his successful lap, Love shared his plans to keep a cool head during the race.

“I’ve never sat on the pole here at Talladega, so that’s really cool. Just got to stay out front and when we do lose track position, [I’ll] keep a calm head and just kind of methodically make our way up and not make any little percentage moves that put us back a few rows,” he said, via Motorsport.com.

The green flag for the Ag-Pro 300 will wave later today at 4:00 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the CW network with radio coverage by MRN and SiriusXM.