After a pretty solid stretch of races to open the season, Stewart Friesen and Halmar Friesen Racing have had a tough couple of weekends in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, which unfortunately bled into Friday at Rockingham Speedway.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario-native didn’t get off to the greatest of starts on Friday afternoon, smacking the Turn 4 wall during his qualifying run, which significantly damaged the No. 52 Halmar International Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.
With the entire Halmar Friesen Racing crew working together, led by crew chief Jimmy Villeneuve, the team was able to get the blue, black, and red truck back onto the grid for the start of Friday’s Black’s Tire 200.
“Big thank you to all of my guys,” Friesen said. “I was trying to go wide open in qualifying and kissed the wall. They did a really good job putting it back together – it was just as fast as it ended practice.”
But, as soon as everything appeared to be going smoothly, the race completely unraveled in the lap of the long-time dirt racer turned NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series co-owner, as calamity broke out on Lap 117.
While running inside the top-10, Stewart Friesen was in pursuit of Rajah Caruth in the No. 71 Chevrolet when the Spire Motorsports driver got free and bobbled up the racetrack, forcing Friesen to quickly react and get out of the throttle.
Unfortunately, when Friesen got out of the throttle, Matt Mills in the No. 42 Chevrolet was behind him, causing them to tangle and crash into the Turn 4 wall, before Friesen slid down the racetrack and collected Tanner Gray.
The incident left Friesen’s already once-repaired Toyota Tundra destroyed and with a second DNF in as many weeks, which was upsetting for the 41-year-old driver, who felt as though things could have turned out differently.
“The last two weeks we’ve had really fast trucks, but it really makes me question if all this headache is really work it anymore,” Friesen said after exiting the infield care center. “It’s what I’ve wanted to do my whole life, race at this level, and you know the top-two series are not in my lifetime, so this is what I live and die for.”
“Maybe it’s just not worth it anymore.”
Friesen has been competing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series since 2016, primarily for Chris Larsen and Halmar Friesen Racing. While the organization has found a great deal of success, winning three events, it’s also been a while since those triumphs have worked out in the favor of the Canadian driver.
It’s been nearly three years since Friesen last went to Victory Lane, winning the May 2022 event at Texas Motor Speedway. That race was his only victory with HFR under the Toyota GAZOO Racing banner and ended a winless streak of nearly three years.
There have been lots of struggles along the way, and difficult afternoons like Friday make Friesen wonder if competing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is even worth it anymore, despite the incident not being the most egregious thing in the world.
“Not a lot of give and take as usual for this series,” he added. “A lot of people question why we race this. I’m 41 years old and the dream to race in NASCAR has always been there, so thank you to Chris Larson and Al Hanke for keeping that dream in reach.”
“Our team is doing a good job building trucks and bringing fast trucks here, but yeah, getting torn up two weeks in a row with fast trucks and really just trying to ride and get to the end and pick up, just super frustrated. Maybe I just belong on the dirt where you can race each other and guys don’t pile right frickin’ through each other all the time.”
After a 29th-place result, Friesen leaves Rockingham sitting inside the top-10 in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings, and still on the berth for a post-season hunt. The series is set to take a week off before going to Texas Motor Speedway, a racetrack where Friesen has previously won.
