At WWT Raceway, Jesse Love earned his very first win of the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts season. The Richard Childress Racing driver has always been a big fan of Kyle Busch, and honored him with a No. 8 flag after winning at Gateway — the site of Busch’s final Cup win.
In the winner’s press conference, Love told an emotional story about the two-time NASCAR Cup champion, who died suddenly at the age of 41 in May of this year.
“Well, lucky for me, I’ve already had this question asked for me, so a lot of the emotions have already kind of been expelled, but like last week we were at Darlington, right, and I had to pop up my calendar to reach out to Kyle, and I sat there and looked at it for a little bit,” recalled Love.
“I was on the way to the shop, and I realized that ahead of Darlington this year, I had put a reminder in my calendar to call Kyle the week of Darlington and just be like, ‘what do I got to do to figure this place out’ and just listen to him talk.
“Not necessarily looking for anything, not asking him a specific question, but I really had it in my notes, like call Kyle, don’t ask for anything specific, just like ask to hear him talk about Darlington, and as you can imagine, that hit me like a ton of bricks, because I wasn’t able to do that anymore, and that was really hard for me.”
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Love admitted that he is an “emotional person” and it took him a while to get over losing the Charlotte NASCAR O’Reilly race — the first race after Busch’s passing. Fog dominated the night, and after a caution for fluid on the track, NASCAR ran under caution until they hit halfway and called the race.
Ross Chastain was leading with heavy right-side damage after slamming the wall due to the fluid, with Love directly behind. The RCR driver was very upset after that race, but apparently that was the minimized version.
Kyle “didn’t get enough credit for how kind he was”
Watch: After Gateway victory, Love gets emotional remembering Kyle Busch
“I felt like I’ve never shown up to a racetrack more determined to bust ass and win the race, and I felt like how they played that race out, it was just robbed from us,” said Love. “I put on a good face for TV afterwards, but I was very upset for a long time about that, and I wanted to win again for him … obviously this is the place that he got his last win at.”
Love went on to say that “we were all very lucky to have Kyle in our lives, and like I hope Brexton (Busch’s son) knows — Kyle owed all of us, guys like me, nothing. He had no reason to help us out, but for him, it was like whoever had the balls to call him, and call Kyle Bush, and ask him ‘I need help, what do you think,’ he was always willing to make that person better.
“I didn’t realize until he was gone but how lucky I was to be in the same building as somebody like that. I hated Darlington on that weekday, on that Tuesday, that I couldn’t do that anymore, and it sounds a little selfish, because it’s like I’m asking for something from him, that sucks and it hurt really bad.
“I miss the ability to be around somebody so great, and somebody that didn’t get enough credit for how kind he was.”
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