Stewart Friesen remembers everything about July 28, 2025.
It would’ve been easy for the veteran driver to walk away. But that thought never crossed his mind.
Racing in the Super DIRTcar Series — as he often does, along with his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series duties — Friesen suffered major injuries in a crash during an event at Autodrome Drummond in Quebec, Canada. His No. 44 car jumped the cushion on the 3/8-mile track and hit the end of the Turn 3 wall, with Friesen calling it a “blunt abutment.” He pirouetted through the night sky in a ball of fire before landing, when he was then struck by an oncoming race car at full speed.
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Friesen was extricated from his car and rushed to a local hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with a plethora of injuries, including a broken pelvis and three separate fractures in his right leg. He was later transferred to a larger hospital in New York for surgery and recovery.
Friesen spent several days in medical facilities before returning home, where heavy rehabilitation awaited. He rested for several weeks before starting physical therapy to rebuild significant muscle loss in his legs. Once winter arrived, he ramped up his training with the intention of returning to race action by Speedweeks.
That he did.
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“I’m feeling pretty good,” Friesen told NASCAR.com ahead of Friday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “Definitely more comfortable in the race car than I am out of it walking around and stuff. Still fighting some nerve damage in my ankle — that’s been a little bit of a challenge. But overall, it’s going good. We’re back rocking and rolling.”
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While Friesen nursed his injuries, his Truck Series team still had plenty to fight for last season. As a result of Friesen’s win at Michigan International Speedway last June, the Halmar-Friesen Racing No. 52 team was locked into the Truck Series Playoffs on the owner side. HFR tapped Christopher Bell to pilot the truck at Watkins Glen International before Kaden Honeycutt joined the program for the final eight races.
Friesen watched from afar, rooting for both his team and Honeycutt as they made the Championship 4 in both driver and owner points. Honeycutt earned five top 10s during his stint, including a pair of top-three finishes in the final two races.
“We had the win at Michigan and ran really good at IRP, and then I got hurt the next week. So I felt like the team was on an upward trajectory at that point and best it’s ever been,” Friesen said. “Chris (Larsen, team co-owner) and everybody at Halmar were like, yep, no, we want to keep the team going, and we were able to put Kaden in the truck, and he did a great job and kept the momentum going. That definitely translated into a strong end of the year for HFR and being in the final four, and then some good momentum through the off-season.”
In January, less than six months after the crash, the 42-year-old tested his big block modified at Friendship Motor Speedway in Elkin, North Carolina. He was cleared to return to racing.
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And it didn’t take him very long to return to Victory Lane, either.
Friesen raced three events at All-Tech Raceway in Florida before heading to Volusia Speedway Park for the Super DIRTcar Series opener. On February 11, just 198 days after his injury, Friesen returned to glory.
“That was really, really big to get a win, get back in Victory Lane and just get those juices flowing for everybody,” Friesen said. “It’s been a busy start to the season. We’ve had some good speed, and it’s been kind of back to our crazy normal.
“[I have] a deeper appreciation for being able to do this, being able to make a living in motorsports. Getting back to the track with Jess (Friesen, his wife) racing at Fonda in September, it was like OK, not being at the race track for almost a whole month, and then being able to get to the track and just watch her and help her out just kind of re-ignited that fire that, damn, I really love this stuff and this is what we want to do. I’m just lucky to have a lot of partners that stuck with me, and teammates that helped make the transition back smooth.”
stewart friesen at darlington raceway
Through five races on the Truck Series side, it’s been so far, so good for Friesen heading into Friday’s race at Bristol. He sits ninth in points with a pair of top 10s, highlighted by a fourth-place finish last weekend at Rockingham Speedway.
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His early numbers, though, aren’t fully indicative of the speed the No. 52 Toyota has shown. Friesen led 10 laps and won a stage at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta, and for most of that race, he seemed poised to take down Kyle Busch in what could’ve been Round 2 between the drivers after last year’s photo finish. But a late mechanical failure relegated him to 20th. Contending for at least a top 10 at Darlington Raceway three weeks ago, Friesen suffered damage in an overtime restart and finished 25th.
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Otherwise, he could be much higher in the Truck Series totals.
“We’ve had really fast trucks, probably the best trucks we’ve had in years,” Friesen said. “That’s thanks to all our guys and our association with Toyota; it’s been awesome to see that, see the growth of the team and the speed come out of that.
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“[Rockingham was] definitely a lot of relief. Big shot in the arm for the team and a big momentum builder. Having the speed but not the finishes is frustrating at times, so to be able to get the finish out of it was — have the bounce go the right way there with staying out in that long run and not losing a lap trying to do a green flag stop. So it kind of worked out in our favor, and we were able to capitalize there.”
After Bristol, it’s a three-week hiatus for the Truck Series before a stretch of seven races in eight weeks, spanning both coasts and including a pair of road courses. The other five races are intermediate-style tracks, a burst that, once completed, will mark just five regular-season races remaining.
The season is still quite young, but The Chase is already top of mind for the Canadian-turned-New Yorker.
“I got to do a better job of qualifying, to try to get some stage points per second stage,” Friesen said. “But trying to seed ourselves a little bit better so we’re not playing catch-up for most of the races is kind of what we’ve been doing. We’ve had race speed, but the qualifying hasn’t been great the last two weeks. So as we go through that stretch, just try to be consistent, qualify well and make as much points as we can.”
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MORE: Craftsman Truck Series standings | Craftsman Truck Series schedule
As Friesen forges ahead through salvation, one thing’s clear: He isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. The veteran said he’s re-watched his brutal crash, but that won’t deter him from racing and embarking on another loaded schedule across both the dirt and NASCAR realms.
To a much smaller scale, Friesen is like a modern-day version of The Beatles. When he shows up at a dirt track in the Northeast, no matter the venue, the fans will follow. They swarm him for autographs in the pits. They pile into the grandstands, whether it’s a 35-degree day in April or a 95-degree day in August.
Friesen is just as hungry as ever and isn’t lifting off both the literal and figurative throttle.
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“It’s going to be kind of more of the same as years past,” Friesen said. “Focus on the midweek Super DIRTcar Series and Short Track Super Series races throughout the month of May, June, July, just hit as many of those as I can in the off weeks. And yeah, kind of business as usual. Try to stay racing as much as I can and keep myself in good shape.”
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