![\"friesen-nascar-story\"](\"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Friesen-NASCAR-Story-500x308.jpg\")
By Clayton Johns (CONCORD, N.C.) \u2014 Jan. 11, 2017 \u2014One of the biggest stars of the Super DIRTcar Series will race full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series come 2017. Sprakers, NY driver Stewart Friesen has partnered with Chris Larsen to create Halmar Friesen Racing for his first full-time foray into NASCAR Racing, he announced Monday. Tommy Baldwin Jr. will be the team\u2019s crew chief.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got our feet wet in it last year and the opportunity came to team up with Tommy Baldwin and his operation so it was a no-brainer for us. We combined forces and I\u2019m really looking forward to it,\u201d Friesen said.<\/p>\n
Friesen made his NASCAR Truck Series debut last July at Eldora Speedway, NASCAR\u2019s only race on dirt. The ride was supposed to be a one-time deal, but quickly blossomed into five more races for Friesen before the end of 2016. It led to the formation of his new team, which will be based in Mooresville, NC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had just planned to do Eldora and have some fun with it, but it kind of lit a fire under everyone and the decision was made to try and do more,\u201d Friesen explained. \u201cWe really learned a lot and met some great people along the way. Now we\u2019ve kind of upped our game to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friesen\u2019s opportunities in the NASCAR Truck Series have come largely from his ability to develop a complete driver\u2019s skillset while racing 800-horsepower Big-Block Modifieds in the Northeast.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s honed his skills with plenty of success in the process. Friesen has 23 career Super DIRTcar Series victories to his name and countless other weekly triumphs over the last decade. He also has one win with the World of Outlaws Craftsman\u00ae Sprint Car Series, which came at Ohsweken Speedway in July 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig-Block Modifieds are hard to drive. There\u2019s a lot of power, not a lot of grip and you\u2019re sliding around. It\u2019s really great racing. You really do develop a skillset to be well-rounded and adaptable into other cars,\u201d Friesen said.<\/p>\n
Friesen\u2019s 2016 Super DIRTcar Series season was a successful one that included a second-place overall finish in series points and his fifth Super DIRT Week victory in the inaugural event held at Oswego Speedway last October. Friesen felt the offer to run the NASCAR Truck Series on a full-time basis was a natural progression and an offer he couldn\u2019t refuse.<\/p>\n
While NASCAR is gaining one of dirt track racing\u2019s brightest stars, Big-Block Modified fans aren\u2019t losing one of their own. Friesen made it clear he has no intentions of slowing down to one race per week with NASCAR.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still going to run a lot of Modified races. We\u2019re building two new cars in our shop and with some Sprint Car stuff, we\u2019ll be probably busier next year than we were this past year,\u201d Friesen said, adding his home will still be in Sprakers, NY.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we get more of our travel schedule ironed out by the end of January, we\u2019ll be able to fill in the blanks on the Modified stuff. I\u2019m hoping to do 40-50 races.\u201d<\/p>\n
Already penciled in are Big-Block Modified races at Volusia Speedway Park during the DIRTcar Nationals in February. The Big-Blocks compete at the fast, Florida half-mile February 22-25. Friesen will race at least two of those nights with the possibility of a third depending on his NASCAR schedule at Daytona.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re bringing a new car down to Volusia so we\u2019re really looking forward to that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Friesen also confirmed that the NASCAR Truck Series schedule aligns perfectly to allow him to challenge for a sixth career Super DIRT Week victory when the event returns to Oswego on October 4-8, 2017.<\/p>\n
Regardless of how far Friesen\u2019s NASCAR venture takes him, it\u2019s clear Big-Block Modified racing will be at the core of his love for racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll always love Modified racing. It\u2019s awesome. It\u2019s pure, it\u2019s raw. It\u2019s a very even playing field. You can create your own results by hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Clayton Johns (CONCORD, N.C.) \u2014 Jan. 11, 2017 \u2014One of the biggest stars of the Super DIRTcar Series will race full-time in the NASCAR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,117,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-front-page-news","category-national","category-super-dirtcar-series"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24275,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24273\/revisions\/24275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}