A season of firsts for Friesen
This season has been one of firsts for Stewart Friesen, the 35-year-old dirt track, big-block modified racing driver originally from Niagara-on-the-Lake.
It’s been his first full year of racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
He’s made the Chase for the Championship playoffs in the truck series for the first time. (NASCAR just calls it the “playoffs” but I think the “Chase” sounds so much better, don’t you?)
And this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP), while driving the No. 52 Chevrolet Silverado entry for Halmar Friesen Racing, he’s going to be in competition on a road course for the very first time and at a facility that he’s never seen.
“I keep telling my friends it’s going to be either really great or it’s going to be really awful,” Friesen laughed during a telephone interview the other day.
“I don’t see a lot of middle ground there.”
Friesen will be among 30 NASCAR truck racers (the truck series is one of three NASCAR travelling series, along with the Xfinity Series stock cars and the Monster Energy Cup cars) who will take the green flag for the Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Old Mosport on Sunday afternoon.
The race will mark the first time in NASCAR history that an international track will host a round of the playoffs.
Eight drivers have qualified for the Chase. In addition to Friesen, Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter, Brett Moffitt, Noah Gragson, Justin Haley, Ben Rhodes and Grant Enfinger made the cut and will begin their quest for the 2018 Driver’s Championship in a race that marks the series’ sixth visit to CTMP.
In addition to the headline Camping World race, rounds of the NASCAR Canada Pinty’s Series (the TOTAL Quartz 200 will go to the post on Sunday morning), the Ulltra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama series (featuring Canada’s hottest driver of the moment, Zachary Robichon), the Canadian Touring Car Championship, and the Nissan Micra Cup series, which could see its championship decided, will be held.
Friesen, who comes from a racing family — they owned Ransomville Speedway in New York state and were partners at one time in the ownership of the Thorold-area Merrittville Speedway — has been racing since he started in go-karts at the age of 10.