Jesse Love reacts to Talladega pole after Rockingham disappointment: "Keep a calm head"

Jesse Love has turned things around after his Rockingham disqualification by clinching pole position for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Ag-Pro 300.

Jesse Love has bounced back from his disqualification from Rockingham last weekend by securing pole position for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Love, who will be joined on the front row by his Richard Childress Racing team-mate Austin Hill, commented on The CW app following qualifying:

“[I’m] Looking forward to tomorrow. Obviously, my car’s as fast as Xfinity Mobile. I think we got a really good shot at [the race win].

“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.”

Rounding out the top five for the Xfinity Series race tomorrow are current championship leader Justin Allgaier, Joey Gase, and Jeb Burton.

Although Love crossed the line first in Rockingham last weekend, his No. 2 Chevrolet failed post-race inspections, leading to his disqualification. NASCAR stated at the time:

"All mating surfaces between the truck trailing arm and the U-bolt saddle must be in complete contact with each other."

Jesse Love, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

Richard Childress Racing decided to appeal the decision. However, the NASCAR appeals panel confirmed that the team had not been successful in its appeal.

“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 explained.

Sammy Smith inherited the win in Rockingham. However, he only qualified 14th for the Ag-Pro 300 in Talladega.