Fast Facts: Stewart Friesen

Stewart Friesen earned the pole for the Truck Series race
at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this year
credit: Getty Images/Jared C. Tilton

Camping World Truck Series driver Stewart Friesen may be a NASCAR newcomer, but he’s a veteran when it comes to dirt racing. Learn more about this Canadian driver – celebrating his 35^th birthday this week – in this week’s Fast Facts.

• Stewart Friesen was born July 25, 1983 in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. His family owned Ransomville Speedway in Ransomville, NY for more than 40 years, and Friesen grew up around the local dirt tracks in Western New York and Southern Ontario.
• Friesen began his racing career in go-karts, then moved into dirt modifieds and occasionally raced sprint cars. He has amassed more than 230 victories on dirt, including five in the NAPA Super DIRT Week Big-Block Modified event (four at the NYS Fairgrounds, one at Oswego Speedway).
• With those credentials, it’s no surprise that Friesen’s first NASCAR race was the Truck Series event at Eldora Speedway in 2016, where he started 12^th and finished 28^th after a wreck. He raced five more asphalt Truck Series races that season, with a best finish of 13^th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
• In 2017, Friesen and Chris Larsen created Halmar Friesen Racing to compete full-time in the Truck Series. Friesen finished 14^th in points that year, earning five top 10 finishes, including a career-best to date runner-up finish at Eldora. So far in 2018, he has added two more second-place finishes to his resume and has finished in the top 10 in eight of 13 races.
• Friesen is married to fellow driver Jessica Zemken; they have a son, Parker, who often visits victory lane at northeastern dirt tracks with his father.
• Find out more about Friesen at his website, stewartfriesen.net.