STEWART FRIESEN AND TANNER GRAY BATTLE TO TOP-THREE RESULTS AT DARLINGTON
Five Tundras Claim Top-10 Finishes at Famed South Carolina Oval
DARLINGTON, S.C. (May 12, 2023) – Stewart Friesen (second) and Tanner Gray (third) survived two overtime attempts in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway. The two Tundra drivers were followed to the checkered flag by Toyota teammates Bubba Wallace (seventh), Corey Heim (eighth) and Dean Thompson (ninth).
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Darlington Raceway
Race 9 of 23 – 147 Laps, 200.8 Miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Christian Eckes*
2nd, STEWART FRIESEN
3rd, TANNER GRAY
4th, William Byron*
5th, Carson Hocevar*
7th, BUBBA WALLACE
8th, COREY HEIM
9th, DEAN THOMPSON
15th, TYLER ANKRUM
21st, TAYLOR GRAY
24th, TIMMY HILL
27th, RYAN VARGAS
35th, DAWSON CRAM
36th, BRENNAN POOLE
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TANNER GRAY, No. 15 Black’s Tire Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 2nd
Why did you refer to this race as eventful for you and your team?
“Obviously, it was really cool to race with Taylor (Gray) there the last part of this race. Overall, it was pretty eventful for us. We didn’t fire off that well, we were really loose to fire and fought that through practice. Then we were able to go from almost being a lap down to finishing third. Says a lot about Jeremy Donnelly (crew chief) and everybody on this TRICON team to make good adjustments all night. Pit crew was amazing tonight and gained us spots every stop and that’s all you can ask for. Just proud of everybody at TRICON Garage and Toyota. To get everyone from Black’s Tire a top-three finish at Darlington is great as this is a track I feel like I’ve struggled to finish at in the past. It’s nice to finally come here and finish one out. We didn’t have the complete race that we wanted, but the end result was good and that’s all that matters.”
STEWART FRIESEN, No. 52 Halmar International Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, Halmar Friesen Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
What is it that’s coming together for this race team with this runner-up finish?
“It’s a lot of teamwork here. Really proud of my guys. Thanks to Chris Larson for believing in me. Halmar International and everybody at the office that’s helping us work this all out. It’s a great team effort. Thanks to my wife Jessica, my son Parker and all my guys. My over-the-wall crew, we worked a little harder and those guys responded with great stops. We didn’t have a great truck in dirty air, but our TRD PRO was good in clean air. We had a good restart there at the end, but I was able to get the second spot. Proud of my guys. Thanks to all of my Northeast friends at home pulling for us. We got ‘Driving Ivan’ to the podium so at least that’s something we’ll drink a beer about tonight.”
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