Jesse Love won Talladega pole, edges Jake Finch by 0.002 seconds
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 24, 2026
Love takes pole
Jesse Love won the pole for the Progress Group 250 at Talladega Superspeedway by 0.002 seconds and kept his run of speed at the track going. The Richard Childress Racing driver turned a fastest lap of 52.435 seconds in final-round qualifying and edged Jake Finch, who followed at 52.437. That tiny gap separated first and second after a session that came down to the final times on the board. Love’s lap put him at the front for the race and gave him his fifth consecutive Talladega pole, a sequence that stands out even in a sport where qualifying margins often shrink to the smallest sliver. It also gave him the 12th pole of his O’Reilly Auto Parts Series career, another marker of how often he has delivered when the session turns to speed alone. At Talladega, where the qualifying line can be unforgiving and the difference between leading the field and chasing it can be measured in thousandths, Love found the lap he needed and left the rest of the field to sort out the spots behind him. The result put him in position to start from the front again at a track where he has repeatedly turned pace into a pole award and where one clean lap can change the shape of the entire starting order. His time held up through the end of final-round qualifying and left Finch with the narrowest of margins in second.
Finch and Mayer
Finch’s runner-up effort kept the battle tight at the top, but the rest of the front runners settled in a clear order behind Love. Sam Mayer qualified third, Carson Kvapil fourth, Austin Hill fifth, Rajah Caruth sixth and Anthony Alfredo seventh. That group gave the front of the starting lineup a compact look, with each driver landing close enough to the pole time to stay in the mix but unable to match Love’s pace in the final round. The top seven also showed how competitive the session was once the laps began to stack up, because the difference between the front row and the middle of the top 10 was small enough to keep the board crowded with contenders. Love’s pole separated him from Finch by only 0.002 seconds, and the next few spots followed in the kind of tight sequence that often defines superspeedway qualifying. Mayer’s third-place lap, Kvapil’s fourth, Hill’s fifth, Caruth’s sixth and Alfredo’s seventh all came in behind a pole-winning run that set the standard early and held it through the end. The front half of the order now leaves Talladega with Love in control of the pole and Finch beside him, while Mayer, Kvapil, Hill, Caruth and Alfredo fill out the next six positions in a lineup that reflects how closely matched the session was from top to bottom. In a qualifying run this tight, a clean lap mattered, and the drivers behind Love each came up short of the benchmark he set.
Day starts from rear
The biggest shakeup beyond the front of the field came with Corey Day. He qualified 10th on speed, but an engine issue will send him to the rear for the race. That changes how his qualifying effort will show up on the starting grid, since the speed he posted did not fully hold through the final lineup decision. The rest of the nonqualifiers also came off the sheet without a spot in the field, as Lavar Scott, Carson Ware, Patrick Emerling and Lee Pulliam did not qualify. For those drivers, the session ended before they could turn qualifying speed into a place on the grid. Love, meanwhile, left the day with a pole, another Talladega trophy for his résumé and a chance to defend his points lead from the front. He said he was proud of his Richard Childress Racing team and ready to defend that lead, a reflection of a qualifying run that stayed clean from start to finish and delivered the result he needed. His fifth straight Talladega pole added another layer to a track record that already stood out, and his 12th career pole in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series gave him another milestone to add to the season. The day also underscored how much can change between speed and the official grid, with Day dropping to the rear and four drivers missing the race entirely. Love’s lap stayed at the top, Finch settled for second and the rest of the field sorted itself behind them after a session built on fine margins and a final round that rewarded the quickest run.
