Stewart Friesen

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 TRD Pro for Halmar Friesen Racing, part-time in the ARCA Menards Series, driving the No. 17 Toyota Camry for Cook Racing Technologies, 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 started racing early in life, his family owning Ransomville Speedway in Western New York. 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. He was the 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 Modified track champion at Fonda Speedway.

Friesen 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. He has won the Syracuse 200 Modified race four times. Friesen has run over nine-hundred dirt races in his career. 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.

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

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, and Friesen's debut race resulted in a 28th-place finish. Running five more races in the season, Friesen recorded three top-twenty finishes, the best being a thirteenth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

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. 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. At Eldora, Friesen qualified on the pole position and remained in the place for the start of the feature after winning his heat race. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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 fifteenth, furthering a streak of near-misses for Friesen. On August 1, 2019, Friesen won his first career NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Eldora. 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. As a result, Friesen qualified for the Championship 4 for the first time but ultimately finished eleventh 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. On the night of the Kansas truck event, Friesen finished second to Mat Williamson in a $53,000-to-win race at Port Royal.

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. Despite not winning a Truck race for the second straight season, Friesen made the Playoffs, scored his best of second in the season finale at Phoenix, and finished sixth in the final standings.

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.

Friesen returned to the Truck Series in 2023. He scored five top-fives and seven top-tens, but went winless and missed the playoffs. He finished twelfth in the final standings.

The 2024 season would follow a similar trend, with Friesen scoring seven top-ten finishes and one top-five, as well as a pole at Nashville. He would again finish twelfth in the standings.

Friesen started the 2025 season with a 23rd-place finish at Daytona. Friesen broke a 72-race drought with a win at Michigan in triple-overtime.

On July 28, 2025, Friesen was competing in a Super DIRTcar Series event at the Autodrome Drummond when he suffered a high-speed accident that resulted in a fractured pelvis and right leg. Friesen was forced to sit-out the remainder of the season due to the injuries he suffered. Christopher Bell filled in for him at Watkins Glen, and Kaden Honeycutt, who had just been released from his ride at Niece Motorsports, would drive for the final eight races, starting at Richmond. After a quick return to racing, Friesen won his 100th race at Fonda Speedway in April 2026.

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.

Friesen is married to Jessica Friesen (née Zemken). The two have one son.

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 Pts Ref 2021 Spire Motorsports 77 Chevy DAY DRC HOM LVS PHO ATL BRD23 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

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 24 25 Pts Ref 2016 Halmar Racing 16 Chevy DAY ATL MAR KAN DOV CLT TEX IOW GTW KEN ELD28 POC BRI22 MCH MSP CHI NHA13 LVS19 TAL MAR TEX PHO18 HOM29 33rd 69 2019 DAY10 ATL18 LVS4 MAR5 TEX2 DOV12 KAN15* CLT3 TEX20 IOW5 GTW3 CHI3 KEN2 POC32 ELD1 MCH8 BRI4 MSP7 LVS19 TAL5 MAR6 PHO1 HOM11 4th 4026 2020 Toyota DAY21 LVS9 CLT30 ATL10 HOM14 POC8 KEN15 TEX4 KAN27 KAN34 MCH39 DRC10 DOV9 GTW5 DAR8 RCH10 BRI32 LVS4 TAL17 KAN TEX28 MAR6 PHO6 15th 504 2021 DAY32 DRC11 LVS4 ATL10 BRD12 RCH13 KAN14 DAR25 COA17 CLT4 TEX34 NSH5 POC33 KNX27 GLN20 GTW4 DAR3 BRI4 LVS6 TAL22 MAR17 PHO2 6th 2275 2022 DAY16 LVS3 ATL6* COA9 MAR13 BRD11 DAR12 KAN14 TEX1* CLT9 GTW4 SON31 KNX5 NSH5 MOH4 POC14 IRP4 RCH11 KAN20 BRI7 TAL20 HOM3 PHO5 6th 2276 2023 DAY28 LVS14 ATL22 COA14 TEX3 BRD23 MAR31 KAN4 DAR2 NWS13 CLT22 GTW3 NSH18 MOH4 POC32 RCH27 IRP30 MLW30 KAN7 BRI14 TAL34 HOM6 PHO24 12th 537 2024 DAY14 ATL23 LVS18 BRI22 COA20 MAR19 TEX13 KAN25 DAR14 NWS10 CLT2 GTW8 NSH11 POC7 IRP33 RCH25 MLW20 BRI9 KAN24 TAL13 HOM6 MAR10 PHO18 12th 557 2025 DAY23 ATL2 LVS6 HOM16 MAR9 BRI27 CAR29 TEX24 KAN5 NWS14 CLT13 NSH21 MCH1 POC8 LRP23 IRP35 GLN RCH DAR BRI NHA ROV TAL MAR PHO 20th 397 2026 DAY10 ATL20 STP26 DAR25 CAR4 BRI16 TEX19 GLN18 DOV11 CLT27 NSH6 MCH22 COR33 LRP9 NWS8 IRP6 RCH36 NHA4 BRI KAN CLT PHO TAL MAR HOM -* -*

Season still in progress 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 14 Pts Ref 2022 22 Racing 22 Chevy SUN MSP ACD AVE TOR EDM SAS SAS CTR OSK2 ICAR MSP DEL 39th 42 2023 Wight Motorsports 19 Chevy SUN MSP ACD AVE TOR EIR SAS SAS CTR OSK6 OSK22 ICAR MSP DEL 40th 60

ARCA Menards Series (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.) ARCA Menards 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 Pts Ref 2026 Cook Racing Technologies 17 Toyota DAY PHO KAN TAL GLN TOL MCH POC BER ELK CHI LRP13 IRP IOW ISF MAD DSF SLM BRI KAN -* -*

CARS Super Late Model Tour (key) CARS Super Late Model Tour results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Pts Ref 2018 N/A 112 Toyota MYB NSH2 ROU HCY N/A 0 Chevy BRI2 AND HCY ROU SBO