Jesse Love to Compete in Cup Races at Texas and Indianapolis for Beard

Jesse Love was able to get his feet wet in the NASCAR Cup Series last weekend as he piloted the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to a 31st-place finish in his series debut in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

After the race, Love said he felt "comfortable" in the NASCAR Cup Series car. That's a good thing, because on Wednesday, Love added two more NASCAR Cup Series events to his 2025 racing schedule.

The 20-year-old will pilot the No. 62 Chevrolet for Beard Motorsports in the Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on May 4, and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27 with primary sponsorship from C4 Energy, which supported his series debut a weekend ago.

Love says making his NASCAR Cup Series debut at Bristol a week ago was a bucket list item, and the California native is excited to get more experience in the Next Gen car under his belt.

“Making my Cup Series debut last week at Bristol was a moment that I had been working towards my entire life,” Love said in a press release. “Thanks to the Beard family, I’ll have a chance to at least do it a couple more times this season. The goals are to keep collecting experience and learning the Cup car. Both races at Texas and Indy will allow me to gain knowledge of how this car races at different tracks, which will hopefully set me up to pounce on future opportunities. Even though they’re a small, family-owned team, the Beards have built a legacy of bringing fast and well-prepared racecars to the track. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do together.”

The upcoming starts at Texas Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway will serve as the respective debuts at both tracks for the Beard Motorsports team, which has raced sporadically in the NASCAR Cup Series since the 2017 season.

Typically, the team only competes at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, but they are excited and ready for the expansion this year with Love behind the wheel.

“We are very excited to be able to expand our racing program and visit tracks that our new to us,” said Amie Beard-Deja, executive vice president of Beard Motorsports. “When my dad started this program we wanted to focus on the superspeedways. Our plan was to make that our niche and to do it well and we feel like we have been able to do that very thing. During the last couple of seasons we had partners that were interested in races outside of those that take place at Daytona and Talladega and that presented a different challenge and we enjoyed it."

In 2023, the team added starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL with Love's Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Xfinity Series teammate Austin Hill behind the wheel. The organization loves what it has seen from Love, and is excited to have the racing prodigy behind the wheel for them.

“We have been watching Jesse Love in his racing endeavors and have certainly been impressed with what he has been doing so it was a no-brainer for us to take on the challenge of preparing cars for and competing in the races that will take place this season at Texas and Indianapolis," Beard-Deja explained.

While the Beard Motorsports team has only competed in 30 races since the 2017 season, the organization is one of the more competitive "Open" entries in the NASCAR Cup Series ranks. The team has an average finish of 20.1, and has amassed one top-five finish and seven top-10s over its 30 starts in the premier division of NASCAR.

Love is a two-time race winner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and currently sits third in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship standings. Love piloted the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet to a win in the Xfinity Series season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway in February and has already collected six top-10 finishes through the opening nine races of the NASCAR Xfinity Series season.

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