Stewart Friesen was looking for his first career victory of the season, but he had to settle for another second-place finish.
“The last couple of laps were just mad,” Friesen told MRN Radio. “Just got tight. Got under him (Kyle Busch) there, just got loose underneath of him like these things do. He gave me some room and I originally thought he was right there in the quarter, but he did what he had to do. He races me clean and gave some room, just got loose. After that just got tight. Tight in traffic. Proud of my guys at Halmar.”
“Ah man,” he continued. “This is a tough one. I thought we could have got him (Kyle Busch) if we could have got cleared. Some clean air would have been good. Thanks to Halmar, Chris Larsen for the opportunity to race at this level. Thanks to all my guys at Chevrolet, everyone worked really hard. You know, coming back from an engine change, even noticing there was a problem was major for our race team. So that’s cool, for some good points.
After starting ninth, Friesen and the No. 52 Halmar Racing team had a great run in both stages finishing third in Stage 1, and fifth in Stage 2.
Friesen got to up to second with 32 to go before a caution slowed his battle for the lead. It wouldn’t be long, however, as he would again start battling Busch for the win with 20 to go.
He got close to the back bumper of Busch with less than 10 to go, but time ran out as Friesen wound up 1.26 seconds behind race winner Busch.
Even though Friesen may be down about the finish, he is looking forward to the month of April for other reasons.
“Looking forward to the month of April,” Friesen said to MRN Radio. “Autism Awareness month and we’re going to be doing a special wrap at Dover. We’ll be auctioning off puzzle pieces throughout the month of April to raise money for the Crossroads Center For Children and Autism Awareness. Just the centers that kids who on the spectrum like my son Parker go to and need help with. We’re going to try and raise as much money as we can, and get it to the right schools to get in the pockets and go hire good help, do what they need to do with it. So that’s what we’re going to work on and go run the modifieds to go have some fun.”
It was Friesen’s fourth second place finish of his career.
