MASTER TRANSƒORMER

continues to win regularly.

In 2016 Friesen got his chance to run in the NASCAR Truck Series for Halmar Racing, notching several starts over the season. In 2017 he committed to running the full NASCAR Truck Series season. He collected his first win in 2019 at the Eldora Dirt Derby, part of the NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series.

In 2021 Friesen got his shot at a NASCAR Cup Series race, when NASCAR headed to a dirt covered Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City Dirt Race.

It has been a very busy decade of racing for Friesen.

What is a typical week in the life of Stewart Friesen? Anything but typical.

“Everything is very day to day now,” Friesen said. “Back before NASCAR, I’d say okay, here’s the Super DIRTcar Series, here’s the Short Track Super Series and I could really set a schedule. Here’s what I’m doing for the whole summer. Here’s my schedule. And I could work off it.”

With added responsibilities and commitments, things have changed.

“Now with the NASCAR stuff I’m doing, or the times when I need to be in

Statesville at the shop, as well as all the other stuff, there’s more moving targets to try to hit. We’ll have simulator time or something and we’ll have to get down south for that. It’s not a whole summer schedule now. It’s more like a month in advance. Maybe.

“We also have to plan for failures. We try to stay fluid with everything. Like with rainouts, maybe we get a break and can take a breath, or maybe we’ve been running for two months straight and we just have to skip a couple [dirt track races] to kind of recover a little,” Friesen said. “We just plan what we can and then go from there.”

“I’m fortunate to be in a situation to be able to do that with great teammates,”

Friesen continued. “All the guys on the 44 team are awesome. That’s up here next to my father-in-law’s shop in New York. Then the truck stuff is down south and managed by Tripp Bruce. He’s done a great job building the team up. It’s all supported by Halmar International and Chris Larson and a ton of sponsors who all make it happen. It’s fun and it’s challenging, and I’m the one that gets to drive. The highs are high and the lows are low, but it’s always rewarding.”

Sometimes those lows include frustrated travel plans. A recent escapade drew attention when Friesen missed NASCAR qualifying at Kansas Motor Speedway because of delayed and then cancelled flights. After racing in upstate New York in a few dirt track competitions, Friesen was scheduled to fly from New York to Kansas and take part in the Camping World NASCAR Truck Series race at Kansas Motor Speedway. He chronicled his travel tribulations on Twitter, enduring six flight delays which eventually culminated in the flight getting cancelled outright. He had purchased tickets on two different airlines to try to make it happen, to no avail. He had to sleep on the floor of La Guardia airport overnight to catch the early morning flight to Chicago and try to catch the connection to Kansas City. Alas, that early morning flight was also delayed because of a maintenance problem, resulting in the missed connection to Kansas. Fortunately, NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace was able to take the number 52 truck out for qualifying so as to stay in competition. Friesen was forced to start at the rear of the field when he finally arrived for the race, due to the driver change. It’s not all fun and games on the road.

Because it’s a business, keeping the car in one piece and not attempting a risky maneuver for a win might seem like the practical play.

“It’s really a simple thing, if you keep the car together and don’t wreck it, you can tweak it and make it faster the next week, right? But I am out there trying to win every race I’m in,” Friesen said.

Each and every race, it appears that Friesen is racing his wheels off on the track. Sometimes literally. In November of 2021 at The Rev in Monroe, Louisiana, while taking part in the Bob Hilbert

Short Track Super Series as it made its annual Cajun Swing, he had a violent wreck that decimated the primary car. He was leading the race coming into turn one and as he took the turn, the right rear wheel hub broke. The wheel ripped off the car, sending the whole vehicle flipping up into the air for two and a half mid-air roll-overs, eventually slamming down onto the track surface upside down. It was a scary looking wreck, but Friesen walked away and then showed why some have taken to calling him Mr. Freeze – the cold-as-ice blood flowing through his veins keeping him cool under pressure. He posted to Facebook shortly after the wreck: “Thanks to everyone who reached out. We hit a rut and broke the right rear hub off, and that was all she wrote. We’ll see everyone tomorrow at Super Bee.”

Down to his backup car and having just taken a good rattling, he might have been prone to take it a little easier the following night. Fear and caution took a back seat, however, as Friesen ran the race with the hammer down the next night at Super Bee Speedway in Chatham, Louisiana. He found himself in victory lane at the Super Bee, trophy and giant novelty check in hand.

There are times when Friesen has to make the hard choice of foregoing key dirt track races to fulfill his duties to the NASCAR team.

“Unfortunately, that’s a reality I have to deal with,” Friesen said. “With the NASCAR truck series, I can’t worry about the points on dirt. The last couple of years we could have probably had a shot at the Super DIRTcar championship if it wasn’t for scheduling conflicts. In the last couple of years there have been some big money events in the dirt world, so we really try to make sure we’re fresh for those.”

In 2020 Friesen skipped a NASCAR truck race at Kansas Motor Speedway to compete at Port Royal Speedway for a $53,000-to-win Short Track Super Series race. He came up just short of victory, finishing second to Mat Williamson. It was a tough call that didn’t pan out the way he wanted in the end.

With NASCAR trying to capitalize on the increased attention to dirt track racing over the last few years, sanctioning several races on the dirt surface, most notably at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, the chances for Friesen to shine on a racing surface where he has proven himself time and again have multiplied.

To the untrained, it would seem that a driver like Stewart Friesen would have an unfair advantage in entering the NASCAR competitions on dirt, with his extensive and ever-growing experience in that category of racing. Is there an advantage in having dirt track experience when trying to make the cross-over to NASCAR on dirt?

“Not. At. All,” Friesen said with a laugh, and then a sigh of exasperation. “I think it’s almost a disadvantage. We’ve had some swings and misses with setups over the last couple of years. We won that last race at Eldora in 2019, went to Bristol last year and struggled, went to Knoxville and threw the kitchen sink at it then went back to Bristol this year and still kind of missed with some front-end stuff. With Knoxville coming up in a couple weeks [June 18] hopefully we’ve got it all dialed in and can show a bit better.”

When it comes to the comparison of driving a modified or late model on dirt versus a NASCAR truck, Friesen is pretty clear about the distinctions.

“You can’t take something and make it what it’s not, right?” He said. “You can’t take a truck and make it a modified. It’s just not the same thing. Nothing handles the same. So, you have to get in that mindset and run what’s under you.”

NASCAR vehicles are heavier and run narrower tires and don’t sport some of the rear axle offsets seen in many classes of dirt track racing. It’s a different beast, all together.

A driver has to transform his skill set to master each category of racing. Stewart Friesen has become a master transformer, in that regard.

Beyond the racing schedule, Friesen juggles his responsibilities of family life with wife, Jessica, and their son, Parker, additional work duties as well as a commitment to autism awareness charity work. It’s a pretty full plate.

Jessica herself is a dirt car driver, following in the footsteps of her father, Ray Zemken. Her career includes racing in sprint cars, modifieds and NASCAR. Jessica and Stewart also own apparel company One Zee Tee’s near their home in Sprakers, New York.

“To be able to race on the same team [with Jessica] is very special, and it’s something we really enjoy,” Friesen said. “She’s a great teammate. She’s very analytical. There are some things that she’s led us into with setups on modifieds that I probably wouldn’t have tried or stumbled upon if it wasn’t for her picking things apart. She works really hard with One Zee Tee’s and is a great racer. She got us a couple of wins last year and already a couple of top fives this year.”

“Racing is something we both grew up doing,” Friesen continued. “Now our son, who’s the focus of our lives enjoys going to the races too. So, it’s pretty cool.”

As far as future aspirations in the dirt scene, Friesen doesn’t really have a welldefined to-do list.

“I haven’t won the Fulton 200 yet,” Friesen said. “I’d like to get that one. But it seems like every year there’s a conflict with that race and a NASCAR race. The last couple of years I’ve been able to check off a few things. I was happy to win Port Royal last year. I don’t know. I guess I’ll just take it as it comes and not try to stress out about any one race in particular. I’ll have fun and just keep doing what we’re doing, trying to win races.”

As mentioned previously, Stewart Friesen has the moniker “Mr. Freeze.” It’s the low hanging fruit of a nickname with his last name and the cool-underpressure demeanor. That and “Mr. Warmth and Friendliness” doesn’t work as well on a t-shirt.

At Can-Am Speedway in mid-May, Friesen was in the pits, preparing for the Thunder in the Thousand Islands, the race that was scheduled to kick off the Super DIRTcar Series before it was postponed from its original date in April.

As I talked with his Director of Communications, Chad Ofiara, I observed Friesen engaging with a race fan and his young son. I watched as Friesen invited the youngster to check out the hauler and the number 44 modified car, which was sitting out waiting to fire up. From the smile on the young man’s face it was clear he was a fan for life. Two older race fans waited until he was done and then chatted him up for a bit. Friesen was friendly and engaging, and again, sent the fans away with beaming smiles.

2022 has been a successful campaign so far for Friesen. In the Super DIRTcar Series, Friesen took home a victory at the DIRTcar Nationals in Volusia, Florida in February as well as the Heroes Remembered 100 in Weedsport, New York over Memorial Day Weekend. As of the writing of this article, Friesen sat atop the points standings, battling closely with driver Mat Williamson.

Shortly after his interview with Dirt Empire Magazine at Can-Am Speedway in La Fargeville, New York, Friesen took the victory at Weedsport and then went on to score his first victory in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 54 races when he rolled into victory lane in the SpeedyCash.com 220 at Texas Motor Speedway.

It’s no wonder he has become a fanfavorite. From his exploits on the track (whether they be dirt or asphalt) to his relaxed demeanor and friendliness to those fans he interacts with, Stewart Friesen continues to prove he can transform himself into whatever kind of driver he needs to be to win. Friesen should be a star on the dirt track and in NASCAR for years to come.