You could say that Stewart Friesen had one of the wildest days as a Truck Series regular aside from Ross Chastain’s disqualification at Iowa.
When Friesen’s No. 52 Halmar Racing team unloaded his primary truck this morning for the two practice sessions, he was unable to use it. NASCAR confiscated his truck due to a firewall issue and the team was forced to bring out the backup truck.
Despite the issue, Friesen was able to get out in the first practice to make some laps and participated in the second practice as well. With the backup truck being pulled out, no matter where Friesen qualified, he had to start in the back of the field.
Friesen started last but when the race began, he was a man on a mission. In the first stage, he went from 32nd to finish 17th. In the second stage, Friesen placed the No. 52 Halmar Racing truck in the sixth position.
A long green flag run broke out in the third and final stage, that saw some fuel mileage strategy take place. Friesen, among other drivers, pitted to make their final round of green flag pit stops. After the stops, drivers were told to save fuel with a 74 lap run to the finish shaping up.
With fuel, a concern, drivers like Matt Crafton, Todd Gilliland and race leader Brett Moffitt ran out of gas. This saw Friesen move up to second with his eyes set on Tyler Ankrum who was the leader at the time. Hoping for a late race caution, Friesen never caught the break he needed, but still wound up second after the long day since practice.
“It’s been a whirl day,” Friesen said to MRN Radio in his post-race interview. “It’s racing man, the crew never gave up on me all day. It was sketchy at the beginning, we worked on it, got me track position and it was just weird. The PJ1 had grip then it didn’t, guys were sketchy and sliding, I know Ross (Chastain) was struggling just as bad as I was.”
“The restarts I couldn’t do anything. Thanks to Chevrolet for all they do for us, really appreciate those guys, they’re a great group and it’s awesome to represent them.”
With the second place finish, it was Friesen’s eighth top five of the year. He currently sits seventh in the playoff standings, 61 points above the cut line.
