Truck battle ends in a triple overtime Stewart Friesen win

Entering this race in the middle of a three-year winless streak, Canadian driver Stewart Friesen was not originally in the conversation to claim victory at Michigan International Speedway. And yet, through a series of late-race crashes and overtime restarts, it was his No. 52 Toyota leading the way.

After a debris caution set up a five-lap dash to the checkered flag, Friesen was only running 19th on track. It turned out that he was exactly where he needed to be. As the front row struggled to get going on old tires while those behind them were shoving, absolute chaos broke out with Gio Ruggiero getting turned, hooking Ross Chastain. Several contenders were taken out including Corey Heim as trucks spun all over the track.

Corey Lajoie, who had just signed a deal to run nine of the final 13 races for Spire Motorsport, was now in control of the race as he hoped to secure his first win ever in one of the national levels of NASCAR. He was just one turn away from taking the white flag when a cut tire sent Daniel Hemric into the outside wall, pushing the race into double overtime.

This time, Grant Enfinger prevailed over LaJoie, but he didn’t make it to the white flag in time either as three trucks in the back wrecked down the backstretch. This was also the end of Carson Hocevar’s shot at the win as he got called for a restart violation, pulling out of line too early as he tried to move forward on fresh tires.

The remaining drivers managed to keep it clean for the third and final restart with Friesen taking the lead from Enfinger with an inside pass into Turn 3, holding on for the entire white flag lap to claim victory.

“I don’t even know what to say,” said Friesen, who now has four wins in the NASCAR Truck Series. “Thank you to all of our great sponsors. These badass race fans. I know there are a lot of Canadians, there are a lot of Americans. Everybody is having a good time together and that’s what it is all about, baby. Yeah!”

Enfinger finished second with pole-sitter Luke Fenhaus in third. Ben Rhodes and LaJoie rounded out the top five. Matt Crafton, Jake Garcia, Chandler Smith, Andres Perez, and Layne Riggs filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Frankie Muniz also survived the chaos mostly unscathed, bringing him a 14th-place finish — his best result since the season-opener at Daytona.

Race rundown

Heim won both Stage 1 and Stage 2 after working the draft perfectly with Hocevar. The race went 70 laps without a single natural yellow, but that all changed in the final stage.

Jack Wood spun into the outside wall for the first incident of the restart, which was promptly followed by a restart wreck involving Rajah Caruth. A handful of trucks opted to pit despite being just outside the fuel window. They were going to need help from some caution laps, which they were about to get.

A major incident on the subsequent restart involving Morgen Baird and Nathan Byrd actually damaged the outside wall. The leaders all came down pit road as they were now inside the full window, but the timing was going to put them all deep in the pack. The race was actually red-flagged to fix damage to the wall with safety crews working to repair a visible hole in the SAFER Barrier.

When things finally got rolling, Heim restarted 17th, Chastain 18th, Honeycutt 20th, and Hocevar outside the top 20. Enfinger was in control of the race for the restart to follow.

The drivers who pitted steadily marched forward, eventually catching Enfinger. A thrilling multi-truck battle for the lead broke out with Chastain and Hocevar actually making contact as they battled for the top spot. Chastain spun sideways but miraculously saved the truck while Hocevar suffered a flat left rear tire. A caution for debris (from Riggs) then set up the sprint to the finish and the aforementioned carnage that followed.

Photos from Michigan – Race