Stewart Friesen survives three overtime attempts for thrilling Truck victory at Michigan

Stewart Friesen had an emphatic response amid a three-year difficult stretch, including the start of the 2025 season. He responded by scoring a thrilling NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory in the DQS Solutions & Staffing 200 at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, June 7, amid three overtime attempts.

The 41-year-old Friesen from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, led the final two of 139 over-scheduled laps. He started in 17th place and was not placed in the spotlight towards the front for most of the event. Friesen’s opportunity to contend for a victory occurred during an attempted restart with five laps remaining. A stack-up and multi-truck wreck involving all the front-runners allowed Friesen to snake through into the top five.

Then amid two attempted overtime restarts that were shortened due to on-track incidents, Friesen found himself restarting on the front row alongside Grant Enfinger for a third overtime attempt. After muscling ahead of Enfinger before the final lap, Friesen had enough fuel and horsepower to fend off the latter’s final-lap charge. The result was an overwhelming victory in the Irish Hills and his first in three years.

On-track qualifying determined the starting lineup on Saturday. Luke Fenhaus notched his first Truck career pole position with a pole-winning lap at 183.505 mph in 39.236 seconds. Joining Fenhaus on the front row was Carson Hocevar. He clocked in his best qualifying lap at 183.271 mph in 39.286 seconds.

Before the event, the following drivers including Nathan Byrd, Morgen Baird, rookie Toni Breidinger and Chandler Smith dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective trucks.

Green Flag

When the green flag waved and the event commenced, the field scattered and fanned out through the frontstretch. Luke Fenhaus used the outside lane to muscle his No. 66 Soda Sense Ford F-150 entry ahead and lead through the first two turns. As Fenhaus continued to lead through the backstretch, teammate Jake Garcia, who was being drafted by rookie Connor Mosack, tried to make a move beneath Fenhaus for the lead entering Turns 3 and 4. Garcia, however, slightly got loose through the turns, which allowed Fenhaus to muscle ahead. Despite being locked in a duel with Mosack, Fenhaus led the first lap.

Seconds later, Carson Hocevar, who was scored in fourth place, used a massive run used through the frontstretch to steer his No. 7 Delaware Life Chevrolet Silverado RST entry beneath both Fenhaus and Mosack through the first two turns. This allowed Hocevar to assume the lead, where he led through the fifth lap mark before Mosack assumed the lead for himself on the sixth lap. Hocevar, however, used a push received from Corey Heim to steer beneath Mosack and reassume the lead through the frontstretch. As Heim reeled in Hocevar for the lead during the following lap, the latter would proceed to lead through to Lap 29.

When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Heim, who got underneath Hocevar and stormed his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entry past him for the lead through Turns 3 and 4, captured his 11th Truck stage victory of the 2025 season. Hocevar settled in second ahead of Mosack, Majeski and Honeycutt while Ankrum, Fenhaus, Chastain, Riggs and Perez de Lara were scored in the top 10, respectively.

Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Heim peeled off the racetrack to pit for the first time. Following the pit stops, Heim exited pit road first while Hocevar, Mosack and the rest of the field followed behind.

Stage 2

The second stage period started on Lap 37 as Heim and Mosack occupied the front row. At the start, the latter two dueled in front of two-stacked lanes through the first two turns. Heim received a push from Hocevar through the backstretch. This allowed both drovers to muscle ahead of Mosack and the field, as Heim led the next lap.

After Heim led to the Lap 40 mark, Hocevar used a run of his own through the backstretch to overtake Heim entering Turns 3 and 4. Hocevar would proceed to lead from Lap 41 to 49 before Heim overtook the latter as Hocevar had a small piece of debris covering his front grille. Despite Hocevar’s successful attempt to use Heim’s rear bumper to clear the debris off his grille, he could not navigate his way past Heim as Heim, who led since Lap 50, retained the top spot.

When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Heim fended off Hocevar to notch his 12th Truck stage victory of 2025 and second of the Michigan event. This also marked Heim’s fourth time capturing the first two stage periods of a Truck event. Hocevar settled in second for a second consecutive stage and he was followed by Majeski, Honeycutt, Mosack, Chastain, Ruggiero, Tanner Gray, Chandler Smith and Fenhaus, respectively.

During the stage break, the leaders led by Heim returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Heim exited pit road first following a fast pit service as he was followed by Hocevar, Honeycutt, Fenhaus, Tanner Gray, Mosack and the rest of the field.

Final Stage

With 57 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Heim and Honeycutt occupied the front row. At the start, Honeycutt received a push from Gray from the inside lane that enabled him to receive a slight advantage before Heim used pushes from both Hocevar and Majeski to clear Honeycutt and retain the lead. Seconds later, Hocevar made a move beneath Heim through Turns 3 and 4 to assume the lead, where the latter led the following lap.

The event’s next caution period started with 54 laps remaining due to Jack Wood wrecking in Turns 3 and 4. Some drivers, including Dawson Sutton, Ben Rhodes, Stewart Friesen and Rajah Caruth, pitted their entries. The rest, led by Hocevar, remained on the track.

The beginning of the next restart with 49 laps remaining did not last long. Caruth, who restarted in the mid-pack region, got sideways after contact with Mills. The contact occurred while trying to race in between the latter and Frankie Muniz through the first two turns. This resulted in Caruth getting loose. He slapped his No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST entry into the outside wall and slid down the track. His entry came to a halt and terminated his race.

During the latest caution period, multiple competitors that included Daniel Hemric, Chandler Smith, Layne Riggs, Grant Enfinger, rookie Giovanni Ruggiero, Matt Crafton, Fenhaus, Garcia, Matt Mills, Muniz, Ben Rhodes, Jack Wood and Friesen pitted while the rest led by Hocevar remained on the track.

The event restarted under green with 43 laps remaining. Hocevar and Honeycutt dueled for the top spot through the first two turns as the field fanned out behind them. Hocevar muscled ahead from the outside lane entering the backstretch despite having Honeycutt, Chastain and Heim all lined up behind him. Honeycutt then went beneath Hocevar entering Turns 3 and 4, trying to muscle ahead, but slowly slid up the track. This allowed Hocevar to use the outside lane to overtake Honeycutt and lead the following lap.

The caution returned during the next lap. Both Morgen Baird and Nathan Byrd wrecked hard against the outside wall in Turns 3 and 4. The carnage resulted in the event being red-flagged for 19 minutes. Prior to the red flag being displayed, most of the leaders led by Hocevar pitted their respective entries. The rest, led by Enfinger, and including Ruggiero, Matt Crafton, Matt Mills, Jake Garcia, Stewart Friesen, Toni Breidinger and Spencer Boyd, remained on the track.

The red flag lifted and the race restarted under green with 35 laps remaining. Enfinger mounted his No. 9 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet Silverado RST entry ahead from the outside lane. Ruggiero followed suit in second place through the first two turns. Crafton, meanwhile, was trying to retain third place ahead of Hemric, Friesen, Riggs and the rest of the field.

Over the next two laps, Tyler Ankrum and Chastain each got sideways through Turns 3 and 4. It resulted in Ankrum making contact with the outside wall. Amid both incidents, the race remained under green flag conditions as Enfinger continued to lead with 30 laps remaining.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Enfinger continued to lead. A hard-charging Riggs, Chastain, Ruggiero and Heim trailed in the top five. Behind, the top 10 spots were occupied by Gray, Hocevar, Hemric, Garcia and Chandler Smith.

Then with 15 laps remaining and as fuel was coming to mind for the front-runners, Chastain tried to steer his No. 44 Niece Chevrolet Silverado RST entry beneath Enfinger through the first two turns. Enfinger used the outside lane to fight back and duel with Chastain through the backstretch as both Riggs and Heim reeled in.

Riggs and Chastain made slight contact as Riggs went beneath Chastain and Enfinger in his bid for the lead entering Turns 3 and 4. Both Chastain and Riggs dueled through the frontstretch. But Enfinger threw a bold three-wide move beneath both to storm back to the lead with 14 laps remaining.

Over the next two laps, an intense four-truck battle ensued for the lead. Enfinger, Chastain, Heim and Hocevar, used the momentum gained from the turns to the straightaways, swapping positions repeatedly. Riggs, who trailed in fifth place, would then scrape the outside wall entering the backstretch. This caused Riggs to lose ground in his bid for the lead as the leaders were approaching lapped traffic.

Then amid a battle for the lead with 11 laps remaining, Chastain got loose beneath Hocevar through the first two turns. This caused Chastain’s tires to smoke and he drifted sideways through the turns. However, he managed to keep his truck racing straight entering the backstretch. Despite keeping his truck racing straight, Chastain dropped to fifth place on the leaderboard. As Hocevar stretched ahead with the lead, Ruggiero battled teammate Heim and Enfinger for the runner-up spot.

A lap later, the caution returned due to a tire carcass that had come off of Riggs’ entry that was spotted in the backstretch. By then, Hocevar was scored the leader over Ruggerio, Heim, Enfinger and Chastain.

The field attempted to restart under green with five laps remaining. Chastain and Ruggiero, both of whom occupied the front row, got sideways after receiving pushes that were too hard by Tanner Gray and Heim. As both Chastain and Ruggiero tried to keep their respective trucks racing straight, Ruggiero got turned sideways and clipped Chastain. Chastain then rammed and sent his teammate Gray for a spin. This triggered a chain reaction wreck through the frontstretch as Garcia, Hemric, Sutton, Muniz, Chandler Smith, Perez de Lara, Mosack, Wood all sustained damage to their entries. Amid the chaos, LaJoie emerged with the lead while Sutton, Hemric, Garcia and Muniz followed suit in the top five.

Overtime

The latest multi-truck pileup that occurred on the frontstretch was enough for the event to be sent into overtime. The start of the first overtime attempt, however, did not last long. Hemric cut a tire and collided into the outside wall hard entering Turn 3. Before Hemric’s wreck, Alan, who restarted in the top five, had gotten loose, slamming into the outside wall as he entered the backstretch. A second overtime attempt did not also last long after a multi-truck incident on the backstretch involving Mills, Breidinger, Perez de Lara and Wood.

During the first overtime attempt, LaJoie had retained the lead over the field. LaJoie, however, lost the lead to Enfinger during the second attempt. In addition, Rhodes made his way into the runner-up spot while Freisen and Garcia were scored in the top five.

The start of the third overtime attempt featured both Friesen and Enfinger dueling for the lead in front of the field through the first two turns. Through the backstretch, Enfinger, racing on the outside lane, tried to gain momentum and draft from LaJoie to storm ahead. But Friesen, who was being aero-pushed by Fenhaus on the inside lane, muscled his No. 52 Halmar International Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entry ahead through Turns 3 and 4 as Enfinger reeled in towards Friesen’s rear bumper.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Friesen remained in the lead by a tenth of a second over Enfinger. Friesen proceeded to lead Enfinger through the first two turns and the backstretch. Fenhaus, Rhodes and LaJoie all tried to reel in the two leaders. Enfinger then tried to reel in on Friesen through Turns 3 and 4. However, he was unable to get to Freisen’s rear bumper. With the clean air to his advantage and his truck still under power with fuel, Friesen zipped through the frontstretch, claiming the checkered flag by a tenth of a second over Enfinger.

Victory

With the victory, Friesen notched his third career win in the Craftsman Truck Series division and his first at Michigan. He also became the 19th competitor overall to win a Truck race at Michigan in the series’ return to the track after a four-year absence.

This also marked the first time that both Friesen and Halmar Friesen Racing won in the series since achieving their previous feat at Texas Motor Speedway in May 2022. Friesen’s victory was also the fifth of the year for the Toyota nameplate and the first ever for crew chief Jimmy Villeneuve.

The victory was a satisfactory moment for Friesen, who came into the event with an average finishing result of 15.8, after finishing 16th or worse six times in the previous 12 events. Although he initially expressed unknowns of continuing to race in NASCAR in May, Friesen now has a guaranteed spot and will make his fifth career appearance in the Truck Series Playoffs as a title contender.