MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Continuing to turn heads over the last two months since his Halmar Friesen Racing (HFR) team formed an alliance with GMS Racing, Stewart Friesen is making headlines.
That trend continued Friday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway when Friesen turned the quickest lap during final NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) practice in preparation for Saturday afternoon’s Texas Roadhouse 200 presented by Alpha Energy Solutions.
Friesen wheeled his No. 52 We Build America Chevrolet around the 0.526-mile paperclip in 19.993 seconds at 94.713 miles per hour. In the opening 55-minute practice session, Friesen was 13th quickest overall.
“It’s fast,” said Friesen of his truck. “And that’s awesome. As a team, the guys worked very hard today, made a lot of changes and were rewarded with some fast times on old tires and then hit it right on the head when we mocked up at the end.”
The Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario native returns to Martinsville on the heels of a huge victory winning the small block modified race in the Eastern States 100-lap race last weekend. In the big block modified race, he finished second at Orange County Fair (N.Y.) Speedway in Middletown.
Friesen, 33, eyes his third top-10 finish of the year in his second start at Martinsville. Since the alignment with GMS earlier this summer, the team has consistently competed for top-10 finishes. He led the field for 10 laps at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway two weeks ago, just the second time he has controlled the field and the first on asphalt.
While giving the indication that he may have a winning race truck for Saturday’s final short track race of the year, Friesen says his goal is just to finish the race.
“My goal is to finish and not beat the truck up throughout the race is goal number one,” added Friesen.
In April, Friesen started 18th and finished 25th in his Martinsville debut.
Halmar Friesen Racing plans for 2018 are being hashed out, but the team is expected to return to the tour next season.
In 15 starts this season, he earned a career-best second on the dirt at Eldora Speedway where he led a whopping 93 laps after winning his first career pole.
He also earned another top-five effort on the 1.0-mile oval of New Hampshire Motor Speedway in mid-September where he finished fifth after starting 11th.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
