Story By: HALMAR FRIESEN RACING – STATESVILLE, NC – It was a night of charging to the front Friday at the Daytona International Speedway for Stewart Friesen in his 72nd NASCAR Truck Series start.
After qualifying 28th, Friesen was up to the 20th position by lap 3. When a large incident on lap 16 brought out a red flag, Friesen was up towards the front and finished Stage 1 in sixth place.
The Sprakers, NY driver ran up front throughout the second stage as well and finished seventh.
An excellent pit stop after that had him heading into the third stage in third place. With 32 laps to go in the event, the Halmar Friesen racing #52 was in the lead.
Friesen led 13 laps during the event, but didn’t get the finish he wanted. With three laps to go, while charging back to the front, Stewart was involved in a wreck that collected many trucks. The damage sustained from the incident was too severe to make one last charge over the remaining laps of overtime.
“It was good tonight,” Friesen said. “We led some laps and that was cool. We got some stage points too. We battled for everyone building this race team and for all these guys who have worked so the last two months.”
Even though he didn’t get the finish he wanted, Friesen was happy with the effort at Daytona.
“It’s good to get through the first race,” he said. “We were obviously a victim of circumstance, but it was cool. We ran up front with an older piece and we will go full steam ahead next week with our newer stuff and I’m looking forward to the season.”
Stewart was quick to make mention that this season is a total team effort.
“We have a good group of guys and had some great pit stops tonight,” he said. “The over the wall crew was awesome. There are a lot of positives to build on.”
DAYTONA RECAP
START : 28
FINISH : 21
POINTS: 25
