Stewart Friesen
Friesen at Darlington Raceway in 2021
BornStewart J. Friesen
(1983-07-25) July 25, 1983
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada
NASCAR Cup Series career
1 race run over 1 year
2021 position55th
Best finish55th (2021)
First race2021 Food City Dirt Race (Bristol Dirt)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 0 0
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
150 races run over 8 years
Truck no., teamNo. 52 (Halmar Friesen Racing)
2022 position6th
Best finish4th (2019)
First race2016 Aspen Dental Eldora Dirt Derby (Eldora)
Last race2023 Craftsman 150 (Phoenix)
First win2019 Eldora Dirt Derby (Eldora)
Last win2022 SpeedyCash.com 220 (Texas)
Wins Top tens Poles
3 75 3
NASCAR Pinty's Series career
1 race run over 1 year
2022 position39th
Best finish39th (2022)
First race2022 Pinty's 100 (Ohsweken)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 1 0
Statistics current as of June 3, 2023.

Stewart J. Friesen (born July 25, 1983) is a Canadian-American professional dirt track and stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 52 Toyota Tundra for his own team, Halmar Friesen Racing, and part-time at local dirt tracks across New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and elsewhere in the United States, driving the No. 44 car for HFR.

Racing career

Early years

Friesen's modified car at Georgetown Speedway in March 2018

Friesen started racing early in life, his family owning Ransomville Speedway in Western New York.[1] After racing go-karts, Friesen raced big-blocks with widespread success in the Northeast United States, advancing to the 2010 World Finals at Charlotte Motor Speedway.[2] He was the 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 Modified track champion at Fonda Speedway.[3]

He was one of the top competitors in the SuperDIRT Series in the mid-2010s, and he also has triumphed in the World of Outlaws sprint car series, winning over 230 career races as of the end of the 2017 season.[4] He has won the Syracuse 200 Modified race four times.[5] Friesen has run over 900 dirt races in his career.[6] Eventually, he met Chris Larsen, who gave Friesen his first NASCAR ride at Eldora Speedway, which was supposed to be a one-time deal. However, the partnership blossomed into a full-time ride.[7]

On occasion, Friesen runs NASCAR and dirt on the same day.[8] He maintains an active presence on New York dirt tracks such as Fonda Speedway and Utica-Rome Speedway.[9]

NASCAR

Breaking into NASCAR with the 2016 Aspen Dental Eldora Dirt Derby, Friesen put his No. 16 Halmar Racing truck into the twelfth starting spot on the grid by virtue of a second-place finish in his heat. However, contact with Caleb Holman ruined his night,[10] and Friesen's debut race resulted in a 28th-place finish. Running five more races in the season, Friesen recorded three top 20 finishes, the best being a 13th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.[11]

On January 9, 2017, Friesen announced that he would run the full 2017 season in the Halmar Friesen Racing (HFR) No. 52 truck with Tommy Baldwin Jr. coming on as a team manager.[12][13] In June, following the first seven races of the season, HFR announced it would undergo a two-week hiatus before returning at Kentucky Speedway in July.[14] At Eldora, Friesen qualified on the pole position and remained in the place for the start of the feature after winning his heat race.[15] He led more than half the laps and claimed the victory in the second stage but lost the lead to Matt Crafton in the closing laps, finishing a then-career-best second.[16] About a month after Eldora run, the team took another two-race break while severing its relationship with Baldwin and making a new technical alliance with GMS Racing.[17] After returning to competition, Friesen scored four finishes of seventh or better in the season's last six races, climbing to fourteenth in the season-ending points tally.[18]

Friesen's 2019 truck at Homestead

For 2018, HFR continued the alliance with GMS, so much so that GMS driver Johnny Sauter referenced Friesen as a teammate. After advancing to the playoffs and a best finish of second on three occasions throughout the year, he finished seventh in the final points standings after being eliminated in the Round of 8.

Friesen remained at HFR in an alliance with GMS for the third straight year in 2019. He was also contacted by JR Motorsports to run a partial schedule in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but nothing came of it.[19] At Kansas Speedway, Friesen led both practices, won both Stage One and Stage Two and led the most laps, but ran out of fuel with three laps to go due to a pit communication on the previous pit stop, in which the fuelman did not put enough fuel in the truck, handing the win to Ross Chastain and relegating Friesen to 15th, furthering a streak of near-misses for Friesen.[20] On August 1, 2019, Friesen won his first career NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Eldora.[21] On November 8, Friesen achieved his second career victory and his first on a paved track by winning at Phoenix after passing Brandon Jones with four laps remaining.[22] As a result, Friesen qualified for the Championship 4 for the first time but ultimately finished 11th at Homestead and fourth in the final standings.

After missing the playoffs in 2020, Friesen later abandoned a full-time Truck schedule and skipped a race at Kansas Speedway in order to run the Short Track Super Series at Port Royal Speedway.[23] On the night of the Kansas truck event, Friesen finished second to Mat Williamson in a $53,000-to-win race at Port Royal.[24]

Friesen returned with his No. 52 team to the Truck Series full-time in 2021, and despite having a worse season and missing the playoffs in 2020, HFR remained with Toyota. Later in the year, Friesen would make his debut in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 77 for Spire Motorsports in the series' new dirt race at Bristol. Despite driving a Toyota in the Truck Series, Friesen drove for Spire, a Chevrolet team, in this one race. He finished 23rd, one lap down.[25] Despite not winning a Truck race for the second straight season, Friesen made the Playoffs, scored his best of 2nd in the season finale at Phoenix, and finished sixth in the final standings.

Friesen's No. 52 truck at Sonoma Raceway in 2022

On May 20, 2022, Friesen broke a 54-race winless streak in the Truck Series by scoring his third career victory at Texas after passing Christian Eckes for the lead in Overtime.

Personal life

Friesen grew up in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, and played hockey as a child. He attended the University of Windsor, attaining a degree in science.[26]

Friesen is married to Jessica Friesen (née Zemken).[27] The two have one son.[1] Friesen and his wife also run a t-shirt printing business (One-Zee Tees), which was originally a fallback plan in case racing did not work out.[26] They live in Sprakers, New York.[28] Like her husband, Jessica also is a dirt racing driver and she attempted to make her Truck Series debut in a second HFR truck, the No. 62, at the Bristol dirt race in 2021.[29] However, she failed to qualify after the qualifying heat races were canceled due to rain.[30]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led. Small number below track name denotes finishing position.)

Cup Series

NASCAR Cup Series results
Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 NCSC Pts Ref
2021 Spire Motorsports 77 Chevy DAY DRC HOM LVS PHO ATL BRD
23		 MAR RCH TAL KAN DAR DOV COA CLT SON NSH POC POC ROA ATL NHA GLN IRC MCH DAY DAR RCH BRI LVS TAL ROV TEX KAN MAR PHO 55th 01 [31]

Craftsman Truck Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results
Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NCTC Pts Ref
2016 Halmar Racing 16 Chevy DAY ATL MAR KAN DOV CLT TEX IOW GTW KEN ELD
28		 POC BRI
22		 MCH MSP CHI NHA
13		 LVS
19		 TAL MAR TEX PHO
18		 HOM
29		 33rd 69 [11]
2017 Halmar Friesen Racing 52 DAY
31		 ATL
19		 MAR
25		 KAN
32		 CLT
23		 DOV
28		 TEX
22		 GTW IOW KEN
12		 ELD
2*		 POC
12		 MCH
13		 BRI
29		 MSP CHI NHA
5		 LVS
23		 TAL
17		 MAR
6		 TEX
14		 PHO
6		 HOM
7		 14th 422 [18]
2018 DAY
27		 ATL
6		 LVS
5		 MAR
20		 DOV
23		 KAN
3		 CLT
6		 TEX
2		 IOW
9		 GTW
13		 CHI
19		 KEN
2		 ELD
3		 POC
4		 MCH
8		 BRI
2		 MSP
7		 LVS
17		 TAL
6		 MAR
11		 TEX
8		 PHO
5		 HOM
4		 7th 2265 [32]
2019 DAY
10		 ATL
18		 LVS
4		 MAR
5		 TEX
2		 DOV
12		 KAN
15*		 CLT
3		 TEX
20		 IOW
5		 GTW
3		 CHI
3		 KEN
2		 POC
32		 ELD
1		 MCH
8		 BRI
4		 MSP
7		 LVS
19		 TAL
5		 MAR
6		 PHO
1		 HOM
11		 4th 4026 [33]
2020 Toyota DAY
21		 LVS
9		 CLT
30		 ATL
10		 HOM
14		 POC
8		 KEN
15		 TEX
4		 KAN
27		 KAN
34		 MCH
39		 DRC
10		 DOV
9		 GTW
5		 DAR
8		 RCH
10		 BRI
32		 LVS
4		 TAL
17		 KAN TEX
28		 MAR
6		 PHO
6		 15th 504 [34]
2021 DAY
32		 DRC
11		 LVS
4		 ATL
10		 BRD
12		 RCH
13		 KAN
14		 DAR
25		 COA
17		 CLT
4		 TEX
34		 NSH
5		 POC
33		 KNX
27		 GLN
20		 GTW
4		 DAR
3		 BRI
4		 LVS
6		 TAL
22		 MAR
17		 PHO
2		 6th 2275 [35]
2022 DAY
16		 LVS
3		 ATL
6*		 COA
9		 MAR
13		 BRD
11		 DAR
12		 KAN
14		 TEX
1*		 CLT
9		 GTW
4		 SON
31		 KNX
5		 NSH
5		 MOH
4		 POC
14		 IRP
4		 RCH
11		 KAN
20		 BRI
7		 TAL
20		 HOM
3		 PHO
5		 6th 2276 [36]
2023 DAY
28		 LVS
14		 ATL
22		 COA
14		 TEX
3		 BRD
23		 MAR
31		 KAN
4		 DAR
2		 NWS
13		 CLT
22		 GTW
3		 NSH
18		 MOH
4		 POC
32		 RCH
27		 IRP
30		 MLW
30		 KAN
7		 BRI
14		 TAL
34		 HOM
6		 PHO
24		 12th 537 [37]
2024 DAY ATL LVS BRI COA MAR TEX KAN DAR NWS CLT GTW NSH POC IRP RCH MLW BRI KAN TAL HOM MAR PHO

* Season still in progress
1 Ineligible for series points

Pinty's Series

NASCAR Pinty's Series results
Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NPSC Pts Ref
2022 22 Racing 22 Chevy SUN MSP ACD AVE TOR EDM SAS SAS CTR OSK
2		 ICAR MSP DEL 39th 42 [38]

References

  1. 1 2 Eggert, Seth. "Climbing the Ladder: Stewart Friesen". Motorsports Tribune. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Stewart Friesen Brings Red-Hot Big-Block Modified Act to World Finals Nov. 4-6". www.charlottemotorspeedway.com (Press release). November 1, 2010. Archived from the original on April 5, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Fonda Speedway Track Champions" (pdf). Fonda Speedway. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Stewart Friesen". SuperDIRT Car Series. Archived from the original on December 30, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  5. ↑ Batz, Mike (October 14, 2015). "Local Auto Racing: Stewart Friesen wins finale at historic Moody Mile in Syracuse". Lebanon Daily News. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  6. ↑ "NE Modified Facts & Stats – Stewart Friesen – Driver Profile". nemodfacts.racestatcentral.com. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  7. ↑ Johns, Clayton (January 11, 2017). "Friesen's Big-Block Modified Roots Helped Create NASCAR Ride". DIRTcar Racing. Archived from the original on January 12, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  8. ↑ O'Brien, Dick (September 25, 2016). "Stewart Friesen does double duty in NASCAR trucks, Super DIRTcar Series". syracuse.com. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Stewart Friesen – ARRA – Documenting Racing History". sites.google.com. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  10. ↑ "Trucks: Friesen and Holman Start Big Wreck – Eldora 2016 | FOX Sports". FOX Sports. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  11. 1 2 "Stewart Friesen – 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
  12. ↑ Eggert, Seth. "Stewart Friesen To Campaign Full NASCAR Camping World Truck Season in 2017". Motorsports Tribune. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  13. ↑ "Halmar Friesen Racing debuts in Camping World Truck Series". NASCAR.com (Press release). NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. January 9, 2017. Archived from the original on January 11, 2017. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  14. ↑ "Halmar Friesen Racing taking two-week hiatus from Truck competition". Jayski's Silly Season Site. ESPN. June 13, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
  15. ↑ Utter, Jim (July 19, 2017). "Canadian Stewart Friesen to start from pole for Eldora Dirt Derby". Motorsport. Motorsport.com. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  16. ↑ Southers, Tim (July 20, 2017). ""Second sucks": Stewart Friesen reflects on solid Eldora Speedway run". Motorsport.com. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  17. ↑ Bonkowski, Jerry (August 23, 2017). "Halmar Friesen Racing Truck team splits with Tommy Baldwin Jr., forms alliance with GMS Racing". NASCAR Talk. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  18. 1 2 "Stewart Friesen – 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
  19. ↑ "264 – Gary Balough: Racing, Fighting & Smuggling". Player.fm. Dirty Mo Media. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  20. ↑ Hauff, Brandon (May 10, 2019). "Ross Chastain Scores First Career NASCAR Truck Series Win at Kansas, Heartbreak For Stewart Friesen". Frontstretch. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  21. ↑ Cain, Holly (August 1, 2019). "Stewart Friesen scores first Gander Trucks victory, wins at Eldora". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  22. ↑ Fair, Asher. "NASCAR Truck Series: Stewart Friesen wins 2019 Lucas Oil 150". Fansided. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
  23. ↑ Tomlinson, Joy (October 4, 2020). "Stewart Friesen Not Racing Truck Series at Kansas Speedway". Frontstretch. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
  24. ↑ O'Brien, Dick (October 18, 2020). "Mat Williamson passes Stewart Friesen for $53K win at Port Royal". Syracuse.com. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
  25. ↑ "Stewart Friesen driving for No. 77 for Spire Motorsports at Bristol dirt race". Jayski's Silly Season Site. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. March 16, 2021.
  26. 1 2 Crandall, Kelly. "Episode 45: Stewart Friesen". Omny.fm. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  27. ↑ Yasinsac, Robin (June 24, 2015). "Local auto racing: Stewart Friesen, Jessica Zemken make a great team". Times Union. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  28. ↑ Wang, Jackson (May 13, 2020). "NASCAR's Halmar Friesen Racing Donates Food to Montgomery County". Spectrum News. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
  29. ↑ "Jessica Friesen to make Camping World Truck Series debut alongside husband on Bristol dirt". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. March 11, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  30. ↑ Estrada, Chris (March 27, 2021). "Bristol Truck dirt race starting lineup". NBC Sports. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  31. ↑ "Stewart Friesen – 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
  32. ↑ "Stewart Friesen – 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
  33. ↑ "Stewart Friesen – 2019 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  34. ↑ "Stewart Friesen – 2020 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
  35. ↑ "Stewart Friesen – 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved December 29, 2021.
  36. ↑ "Stewart Friesen – 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
  37. ↑ "Stewart Friesen – 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  38. ↑ "Stewart Friesen – 2022 NASCAR Pinty's Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
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