Inside The Garage: 'Rising' Star Jesse Love 'Motivated' by Friend Connor Zilisch

Jesse Love’s road to the 2025 Xfinity Series title went through his good friend Connor Zilisch.

Love had nowhere near the season Zilisch had when it comes to results. Zilisch, a rookie at JR Motorsports, won 10 races (albeit one where he started the race but Parker Kligerman finished in his car) and led 1,013 laps. Love, driving for Richard Childress Racing, won two races — the opener at Daytona and then the finale to win the title — and led 297 laps.

Love enjoyed the season-ending glory but endured a year when he saw Zilisch’s stock as a potential megastar rise. Zilisch had won in his Xfinity debut in 2024 at Watkins Glen, but everyone expected him to be stout on road courses.

The fact that he won on ovals with some regularity only added to the Zilisch hype. Zilisch went 18 consecutive races with top-five finishes. The 20-year-old Love watched and couldn’t match Zilisch race to race as he finished the year with nine top-five finishes.

The thing is — no one else did either (Zilisch teammate Justin Allgaier did lead more laps but fewer miles than Zilisch). But how does a young driver handle it knowing that his friend has enjoyed so much success, so early? Love had two choices: Try to match Zlisich’s success or focus more on himself and getting better rather than focusing too much on Zlisch.

"I sat down, and I was like I can't control what Connor does, but I can control what I do," Love said at his championship news conference at Phoenix Raceway last month. "Every day I woke up, he's motivated me to be better.

"I don't like losing to him. I've woke up every day trying to beat him, probably more than myself."

Love’s path to the Xfinity title is one of three driver storylines that are part of the series "Rising," a five-episode docuseries airing on FS1 with a debut each Monday. The second episode will air today.

The Zilisch storyline isn’t the focus of the series but it’s there. And in his post-championship news conference, Love explained it wasn’t easy.

"It's been really hard this year," Love said. "At the end of the day, I want to walk in the room and feel like the man. ... For quite a while, once I had like my breakout ARCA season, I was the hottest thing for the most part with the exception of probably Corey [Heim].

"Then Connor kind of took that away from me. It's been really tough, hard to deal with that with just the way that your friends look at you, the way the fans look at you. It's all tough. It was a hard pill for me to swallow."

Jesse Love (L) and Connor Zilisch are the definition of "friendly rivals."

But he tried to use that as motivation.

"If you just look at Jesse's season, second-year season, he's done good — but when you look at Connor's, it's been way above anything you've ever seen before," Love crew chief Danny Stockman said during the championship news conference. "That puts a lot of strain on teams. But at the end of the day, you have to work on your own program, you have to work on your own stuff."

Next season, Zilisch will compete in Cup as a rookie at Trackhouse. Love will do another year at RCR in what will now be called the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. He’d hope that a Cup seat follows in 2027.

He’ll have to find a new mindset other than trying to beat Zilisch.

"I'm not going to have Connor to compare myself to next year," Love said. "I'm going to have to change that mindset pretty quick."

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.