Jesse Love is an Xfinity Series race winner. Image: Richard Childress Racing
Image Racing boss Terry Wyhoon has put preliminary plans in place to expand his squad to four-cars to field Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love in the Super2 finale.
The 20-year-old California native is currently in his second Xfinity season with RCR and is also making selected runs in the Cup Series.
Former Australian NASCAR racer Wyhoon has close ties to RCR thanks to ex-Image engineer Andrew Dickeson, who works for RCR customer team Kaulig Racing.
Wyhoon and Dickeson were part of initial efforts to get RCR’s Kyle Busch to Adelaide in 2024, when the two-time Cup champion was to drive in both the Supercars and Super2 divisions.
While a high-profile bid from Adelaide organisers and sponsor NAPA to secure Kyle Larson for this year have fallen flat, Wyhoon and Dickeson are quietly working on their Super2 plan.
“We felt that after the Kyle Busch thing fell over, we needed to let everyone calm down a bit,” Wyhoon told Speedcafe.
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“We started thinking about some other young talent who are pretty keen to do some road racing. It’s such a big thing now for them. If you win a road race you’re locked in [to the Playoffs].
“If Jesse can make it happen with budget, I’d love to run him. He’s a ripper kid and he drove the car in Texas when we were there in 2023.”
Jesse Love. Image: Richard Childress Racing
The car Wyhoon refers to is a Walkinshaw Racing-built Holden Commodore VF V8 Supercar that is based in the US and occasionally used by NASCAR drivers for road course training.
Strict testing rules mean teams are unable to test with NASCAR machinery and, despite being right-hand drive, the Commodore is seen as a useful practice vehicle.
Wyhoon was recently in the US to oversee the car’s latest test run at Virginia International Raceway involving Kaulig drivers AJ Allmendinger, Ty Dillon and Daniel Dye.
NASCAR is currently amid a swing of road course events that include this morning’s Xfinity race at Sonoma, California, for which Love has qualified fourth.
Wyhoon is meanwhile busy running his three Super2 entries in Townsville and said he’ll know more about the possible Love cameo in the coming weeks.
Love in action at Sonoma. Image: Richard Childress Racing
“I said to Andrew the other week, I need to get through Townsville and QR (Queensland Raceway), this is priority, then we can really start chewing the fat over it,” he said.
“I’ve already talked to Brad Jones about getting another Super2 car and a crew and whatnot to run it. It’s all very doable.
“But we’ll know a lot more in the next couple of weeks. Andrew is pretty keen for it to happen.”
As for how Love would fare if thrown into the Super2 field?
“All I know is he’d walk away from there a better road racer,” said Wyhoon of a driver who finished sixth in the Xfinity race on the streets of Chicago last weekend.
“And he’d have a nice trip to Australia and a good experience with us.”