DARLINGTON, S.C.: In the midst of a reorganization of his Halmar Freisen Racing team, Stewart Friesen collected his second straight top-five finish with an impressive second-place finish in Friday night’s Buckle Up South Carolina 200 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
Off the track, the last few weeks have been turbulent for the Statesville, N.C.-based team, but since the dismissal of several crew members, including his crew chief and team manager – the team has rallied together as one unit which has yielded with success in the last two races.
A solid sixth-place qualifying effort on Friday afternoon kept the three-time Truck Series winner tucked inside the top-10, but it was a bold restart in the first of two overtimes in the race that Friesen in the hunt for his triumph since Texas Motor Speedway last spring.
Restarting on the bottom lane and just outside the top-five, Friesen used momentum and clean air to his advantage when Tanner Gray stacked up the top lane when the trucks screamed into Turn 1.
Utilizing the lower lane, Friesen charged past Rajah Caruth, William Byron, Tanner Gray and others to vault his No. 52 Halmar International Toyota Tundra to the second spot.
Looking for a way to swipe the lead from a dominating Christian Eckes, the caution flag waved a second time in overtime for an accident on the backstretch allowing the field to be restacked and another shot for Friesen to score his first victory of the season.
A strong restart, however, by Eckes kept Friesen at bay – with the Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario driver having to fend off the challengers Gray and Byron on the final lap of the race to protect his runner-up spot.
Eckes cruised to his second win of the season with Friesen’s truck 0.962-seconds behind, collecting his second top-five finish of the season and his best result since finishing third at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway last October.
After the race, Friesen continued to be thankful to his team owner Chris Larson for continuing to stand by him and his team while they continue to revamp the overall restructure of the team.
“It’s a lot of teamwork here. Really proud of my guys,” said Friesen. “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.”
The Canadian driver also praised his pit crew for their recent strides on pit road which proved pivotal Friday night at Darlington.
“My over-the-wall crew, we worked a little harder and those guys responded with great stops,” he added. “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.”
With his second top-10 finish of the season in the books and Darlington marking the halfway point of the regular 2023 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series season, Friesen has lifted to 10th in the championship standings, five markers behind Nick Sanchez and heads to North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway for next weekend’s highly anticipated Tyson 250 – eyeing his third straight top-five finish.
The 39-year-old veteran has not achieved that stat since finishing fifth, fifth and fourth at Knoxville, Nashville and Mid-Ohio last summer.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
