JESSE LOVE
Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
No. 62 C4 Ultimate Energy Chevrolet Camaro
Event Overview
● Event: Indianapolis 400 (Round 22 of 36)
● Time/Date: 2:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 27
● Location: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
● Layout: 2.5 mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 160 laps/400 miles
● State Lengths: Stage 1: 50 laps / Stage 2: 50 laps / Final Stage: 60 laps
● TV/Radio: TNT / IMSRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Notes of Interest
●Eyes on Indy. The family-owned Beard Motorsports team is gearing up for its third NASCAR Cup Series race of the season and second in a row with 20-year-old driver Jesse Love when it hits the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval for Sunday’s Brickyard 400. The event marks the team’s first on the legendary four-cornered, 2.5-mile layout and the first in Cup Series competition for Love, the native of Menlo Park, California, who was last seen behind the wheel of the No. 62 C4 Ultimate Energy Beard Motorsports Chevrolet in the team’s most recent Cup Series race May 4 on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway oval in Fort Worth.
●The Team’s Latest New Track. Sunday’s race marks the 33rd start for Beard Motorsports since its Cup Series debut in the 2017 Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, and the Indianapolis oval will be the sixth different track on which it has competed. Through its first seven seasons, the high-banked, 2.5-mile Daytona oval and its sister track, the behemoth 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, were where the team focused its Cup Series efforts, with 21 of its first 22 appearances in the series coming at those two layouts from the 2017 Daytona 500 through the April 23 race at Talladega. The lone outlier in that
stretch was the August 2020 Go Bowling 235 on the 3.61-mile, 14-turn Daytona road course during the final Cup Series season for the team’s original driver, Brendan Gaughan. After continuing its focus on the Daytona and Talladega superspeedways in 2021 and 2022, the team added three new tracks to its resume in 2023 – the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway in July, the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn in August, and the 2.28-mile, 17-turn Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval in October. Love’s outing in the Beard Motorsports Chevrolet at Texas in May represented the team’s first in the Lone Star State.
●Young Driver’s Cup Series Indoctrination Continues. Love will be making his fourth career Cup Series start Sunday, all this season. The second-year fulltime competitor for Richard Childress Racing (RCR) in the NASCAR Xfinity Series made his Cup Series debut in the April 13 Food City 500 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, where he qualified 19th and finished 31st in the No. 33 RCR Chevrolet. Love’s second Cup Series race May 4 at Texas in the Beard Motorsports Chevrolet was cut short by an accident in the latter stages of the race. He was back in the RCR Chevrolet the following weekend at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, where he qualified 32nd and finished 29th.
●Previous Indianapolis Experience. Love has one previous outing on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in the Xfinity Series. He piloted the No. 2 RCR Chevrolet to a 13th-place finish from the 15th starting position in the July 2024 Xfinity Series race at the track. In his 53 career Xfinity Series races the past two seasons, Love has a pair of victories – in April 2024 at Talladega and at this year’s February season opener at Daytona – 12 top-five finishes, 31 top-10s, seven pole positions, and has led 511 laps. He’ll also be part of Saturday’s Xfinity Series field. Meanwhile, Love has experienced success in the area, just across town in the August 2023 ARCA Menards Series race on the .686-mile Indianapolis Raceway Park oval., He dominated behind the wheel of a Venturini Motorsports entry, winning from the pole and leading 154 of 200 race laps along the way.
●Beard Motorsports and C4. Riding along with Love and the No. 62 Beard Chevrolet at Indianapolis will be C4 Energy, America’s fastest-growing energy drink brand. Nutrabolt, owner of C4®, is the No. 1-selling global pre-workout brand and one of the fastest-growing energy drink companies in the country. Making its C4 Ultimate Energy product lineup more delicious and even cooler, Nutrabolt recently introduced the Frost collection – a product extension available in three flavors that will also unveil a unique can technology that transitions from silver to blue when the can is cold and ready to drink.
● In Case You Didn’t Know. Entering a new race market is always a good time to highlight the Beard Motorsports story – a boutique race team borne out of a passion for racing and sustained by love for the family patriarch. The late Mark Beard Sr., brought his dream to life when he fielded the No. 62 Chevrolet in the season-opening Daytona 500 in 2017. Upon his passing in 2021, his wife, daughter and son pursued the racing dream in remembrance of Beard. Owned by Linda Beard and managed by daughter Amie Beard-Deja and son Mark Beard Jr., the No. 62 NASCAR Cup Series team continues to participate in select events on an annual basis.
● A Powered Partnership. As it has been since 2017, the No. 62 Beard Motorsports team has been powered by an ECR-built engine and the team has leveraged the power of those engines to post solid finishes. To date, Beard Motorsports has participated in 33 Cup Series events, scoring two top-five finishes and seven top-10s.
● Next Up. Following this weekend, Beard Motorsports returns to the Cup Series for the Aug. 23 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona. Driver and sponsor information are to be announced.
Jesse Love, Driver of the No. 62 C4 Ultimate Energy Chevrolet Camaro:
The Brickyard 400 is one of the marquee events for the NASCAR Cup Series. What will it mean to be a part of the starting field for this race?
“I have been to Indy a few times and I have watched the Indy 500. I always thought that was the coolest race in the world. I always loved going to Indy. It’s not my favorite racetrack to drive, but it’s the coolest race track I think there is because of the history and because of the Indy 500.”
This will be your fourth Cup Series start, all having come this season. What have you learned about the NextGen cars during your first three starts?
“Learning about the cars and what balance I need in the car, how to race, some of my strengths and weaknesses, too.”
You have one previous start on the Brickyard oval, albeit in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. What was that experience like? Did you learn things that will be applicable this weekend? And anything you can bring to this weekend from your previous three Cup Series starts this season on intermediate tracks?
“I crashed on lap one (of last year’s Xfinity Series race), so not really. I drove the car without the right-front fender on it, but I still feel like I have an understanding of what the racing is like there, so I kind of have a good idea of what the weekend is going to look like and what the race will be like. (Otherwise,) I feel like Indy is its own racetrack. There’s nothing else like it or even similar to it.”
How are you preparing for double duty this weekend at Indianapolis? How much does the extra seat time help for Sunday?
“I think it helps. I’m going to have to prepare a little more. It’s basically double the prep. I’m going to have to be a little more nitty-gritty on the Cup side because I obviously don’t race those cars as much as I do on the Xfinity side.”
No. 62 Beard Motorsports Team Roster
Primary Team Members
Driver: Jesse Love
Hometown: Menlo Park, California
Crew Chief: Darren Shaw
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina
Car Chief: Travis Owens
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Spotter: Rick Carelli
Hometown: Arvada, Colorado
President: Linda Beard
Hometown: Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Over-The-Wall Members
Front Tire Changer: Mike Russell
Hometown: Fayetteville, North Carolina
Rear Tire Changer: Bryan Ketchie
Hometown: Mt. Ulla, North Carolina
Tire Carrier: Evan Clay
Hometown: Franklin, Louisiana
Jack Man: Garrett Crall
Hometown: Hicksville, Ohio
Fuel Man: Doug Warrick
Hometown: Hamilton, New Jersey
Road Crew Members
Mechanic: Jack Gagnon
Hometown: Quebec, Canada
Front End Mechanic: Mark Sanders
Hometown: Springfield, Ohio
Tire Technician: Mike Harrold
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina
Engine Tuner: Jason Watkins
Hometown: Ridgeway, Virginia
Interior Specialist: Nic Hill
Hometown: Fort Myers, Florida
Transporter Driver: Roger Lankford
Hometown: Lexington, North Carolina
