Stewart Friesen Q&A

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Stewart Friesen knows a thing or two about winning. The 38-year-old Canadian has won hundreds of dirttrack races, but he’s never been crowned a NASCAR champion. Friesen is ready to change that. After narrowly missing the Championship 4 last season, Friesen believes his Halmar Friesen Racing team now has what it takes to race at the front of the pack and contend for the series title.

It was a good building year. I feel like we started hitting our stride halfway through the year. When we got started in 2020, through COVID and building a new team with the switch to Toyota, it was challenging. We moved Jonathan Leonard to a crew chief role and Trip Bruce to the general manager role, and that’s when things started getting good.

We were focused on building the team and having the right people in the right places. We’ve made a number of changes since the end of the year, which I think is a positive for the team. I’m looking forward to picking up where we left off.

It was a really cool experience. It all started with the dirt at Eldora with Halmar and Chris Larsen. We teamed up with Spire and it was something I never thought I’d get the opportunity to do. It was a really special day, and it’s something I’ll always remember.

I did the best I could and gave the most amount of feedback I could, both good and bad. When the day was over, I made a list of all the stuff I went through and presented that to the guys at NASCAR. Hopefully, the race (at Bristol) is better because of that. The tire is 100 percent better than it was last year. The fact the race is at night will help, too, because it’ll keep the dust down. I’m proud to be part of all of that.

We have to keep rolling. The way we finished 2021 was a good shot in the arm for all of us because it let us know that we can do this and be competitive on our own. We’re building a couple of new trucks over the offseason and refining the trucks we do have. We have a couple of new faces who will be on the road with us this year. Hopefully, we have some more partners and teammates join us to help us grow.

We’ve been talking to Todd since the beginning of October. I talked to Todd on the phone on my way to Super DIRT Week, and that got the ball rolling. Trip Bruce has done a great job to put the deal together. It’s going to be good and exciting. I think he’s going to run well. We’re on the hunt for some owner points to make sure he’s in the show if there’s a rainout for qualifying. He’s going to be strong and I’m looking forward to working with him.