Jesse Love finished the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season with his first-ever championship title. The Richard Childress Racing driver managed to outscore his friend, competitor, and the title favorite, Conor Zilisch, who won a mammoth ten races this year and took home the regular season title. Love recently sparked a revolt within the NASCAR fan base with a few comments he made on a podcast.

Love had provided his thoughts about the fanbase itself and how he hates to see the current state that it is in. He said that it seems to him that everybody just wants to be against it. It’s become some sort of trend or kind of popular to hate NASCAR.

“I’ll probably get flak for saying it. I do think that’s our biggest problem,” Love said, “It’s becoming popular to be against, A, NASCAR and, B, against everything that has to do with it.”

The young driver shared this specific sentiment from his recent travels to Australia, where he raced in the Adelaide 500, which is part of the Dunlop Super2 Series. This is a developmental division for the Repco Supercars Championship. He mentioned how people actually really enjoyed what they were doing. Alluding to his own perception of the NASCAR Series.

He then used F1 as a reference to make his point.

“I think what we have right now is actually really great. I watched the F1 race, which was probably the worst racing I’ve watched all year, as far as the product goes, and people seem to love it.”

According to him, even when F1 delivers what he feels is ‘worst racing’, fans still praise it. So, with that perspective, NASCAR fans shouldn’t be so hard on the sport. If NASCAR’s more competitive and exciting as per what he feels, then it deserves appreciation instead of criticism right now.

How did fans react?

His comments went viral, especially the ones made with comparisons to F1. Fans didn’t take it well.

One wrote, “For a decent racecar driver, his entire statement (including F1 remark) is really dumb.”

Many other comments referencing his comment to Formula 1 were intense in their word choices. Some had said that F1 has something NASCAR doesn’t: legitimacy. Or the comments were in response to his sentiment towards the Super2 Series. Where he said that Australia’s sanctioning bodies know how to treat people, with value and respect, where NASCAR apparently doesn’t.

While some comments were targeting his negative statement on F1, others were targeting Love directly.

“Sounds like something someone who knows they didnt deserve the championship they won would say,” one comment said.

Several other comments were directed towards Love’s win only being counted as a win under the format, where it wouldn’t have happened before. Other comments said how the race wins don’t matter, thanks to the playoffs. They said the drivers are risking their lives for nothing other than to be a “racing billboard” for a company on the side of a car. The fans aren’t against NASCAR; they want change, and want it to be as entertaining as it has been in the past.

In Love’s point of view, he is “team pro sport,” where he wants the sport to be in a very solid place. To him, the fans who are complaining aren’t looking at the bigger picture.

A fan’s response to this read, “Just revert back to what @dennyhamlin said. The drivers that defend the playoff system are the ones who know they have no realistic shot to win titles under a season-long format.”

Top Stories

Dale Earnhardt’s Grandson’s NASCAR Future Remains Unhindered Despite Major Team Rebranding Ahead of 2026

Richard Childress’ Champion Driver Joins Forces with HMS Crew Chief to Make Last Minute Chili Bowl Entry

Jeff Gordon’s NASCAR Rival Issues Public Verdict Years After His Apology

Cup Legend to Step Down From His Role as NASCAR Organization Names New Executive Leader

Ross Chastain Recalls the Relentless Grind That Kept His NASCAR Dream Alive After Sponsorship Spin-off

What will be the new playoff format?

NASCAR still has not released those details as to what its next points championship playoff format will look like. Kaulig Racing CEO Chris Rice addressed the delay when speaking to Kenny Wallace in a recent conversation.

All Rice has confirmed is that the new format has not been finalized, but said that discussions are ongoing. He did say, however, that the delay does not mean the plan was dropped and alluded to Wallace liking what the new format plan is. Rice emphasized that it is not a complete rebuild of the format, but that an adjustment is being made.

As far as fan reactions to the new format will go, Rice mentioned that there will be about 15 percent of people who hate it, and the rest will either love it or just be okay with it.

With no official details released by NASCAR, the format is assumed to be delayed for some time. When fans asked for an update online, Bob Pockrass stated, “Don’t expect NASCAR to announce new playoff system until sometime in January.”