NASCAR shows what exactly made RCR driver Jesse Love’s Rockingham win invalid

NASCAR's Xfinity Series director Eric Peterson has offered an explanation for Jesse Love's disqualification at Rockingham Speedway, pointing to the No.2 Chevrolet's loose rear suspension that delivers an aerodynamic advantage. The 20-year-old prodigy saw his victory nullified after a post-race inspection revealed a rule breach.

Love bagged his third career win at the North Carolina Lottery 250 after taking the lead from an overtime restart. The Richard Childress Racing driver bumped Sammy Smith's No.8 Chevrolet while doing so.

Nonetheless, Smith stood to inherit the win after a technical infringement stripped away Love's feat. The result marked the JRM driver's first win of the season.

Addressing the media, NASCAR's Xfinity Series director revealed the cause for the disqualification with a practical demo. He said (via X/bobpockrass):

"So the rule that was violated is all the mating surfaces between the U-bolt saddle and the truck trailing arm have to be in complete contact with each other at all times. And we rotate this up here, and as you can see, there's a pretty large gap between the truck trailing arm and the U-bolt saddle, and if all of this whole assembly was tight, then there would be no gap. But as you can see, it's quite loose.

"So that was a rule they violated on the two-car. There is an aerodynamic performance advantage to doing that."

NASCAR reporter Bob Pockrass shared another clip exposing the No.2 Chevy's loose suspension. He wrote:

"Will post more of an explanation in a minute but here is the suspension from the Jesse Love car from Rockingham and the issue with it."

RCR attempted to overturn Jesse Love's DQ, but NASCAR has rejected their appeal, leaving Sammy Smith as the official winner of the Rockingham skirmish.

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Jesse Love remains upbeat despite Rockingham loss

Jesse Love displayed optimism about his Rockingham setback by focusing on his win rather than the disqualification that followed. He recently shared a series of images capturing the victory lane moments from what would've been his second Xfinity Series win of the season.

Reflecting upon the same, Love uploaded an Instagram carousel with the following caption:

"Showed up for a trophy, left with a trophy. see y’all in Dega."

Jesse Love secured his first win of the season at the United Rentals 300 in Daytona, where he similarly took the lead in an overtime restart to earn the checkered flag. Up next, the 20-year-old is set to compete at Talladega Superspeedway, the track where he secured his first Xfinity Series win.

The RCR driver looks to recapture past glory at the track after claiming pole with a qualifying lap of 182 mph in 52.546 seconds. The record marks his seventh career pole and his second in a row at Talladega.