RPW Exclusive: Fuel Holds Out For Stewart Friesen In Eastern States 200 At OCFS

Column By: DYLAN FRIEBEL / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – Stewart Friesen won his second Eastern States 200 Sunday at Orange County Fair Speedway. However it wasn’t without a little bit of luck.

When pole sitter Brett Hearn came down on lap 30 for gas, the fueling did not work properly and what should have of been a lot, amounted to a little but same went for Friesen, as they estimated one gallon was left after the event. Friesen beat them off pit road and was basically racing to become the first car to have pit as there was a mandatory stop.

“I knew who we were racing after we pitted.” He said. “We got slipped by “the Doc” (Danny Johnson) when Sheppard was leading because he would knock me out so far. I was just gonna keep following him and following him and when he let me get a tire under him I knew it was my time to make the move.”

At Orange County, passing can at a premium. Especially when it comes to the lead of the Eastern States 200, and Friesen knew it.

“He (D. Johnson) didn’t make it easy.” He said. “He left his door open a little bit and I got my right front to rub rail in turn 4 and they must of told him I was down there because he started to change direction pretty quick. I’ve been on the other side of that deal a couple times too, but for a big race like this and him being my favorite driver you have to race hard for the win.”

When you come to Eastern States you normally expect tire wear but when Friesen pulled into Victory lane his D500 right rear looked good.

“It was cold out this year.” He commented. “With the rain the night before, it just stayed slick. It was hard to get the tires to fire again after a couple of those long cautions. It’s unbelievable to win another one of these. It’s one of the biggest races we have and now the most historical one we have. It’s awesome to play out the strategy and all that and it may not be the best on track side by side racing, but for the teams, the preparation we do for this is second to none.”

Despite running in the NASCAR Camping World Truck series, Friesen never forgets about where he came from.

“If I could bet on another ten Eastern States/Dirt Weeks I would versus the Truck win.” He said. “We are going to try hard to get one soon though and if we do not get one this year we hopefully can put something together for next year.”

There was a mandatory pit stop needed to be taken by all 44 drivers who started the race after the completion of lap 30. When the caution flew on that lap, over 80% of the field took advantage.

“We came in on lap 30 and did fuel only.” He said. “E Mack (Eric Mack) called on the radio and said they only thought they got about a gallon in and he wanted me to come back in 20-30 laps later and by then we already gotten towards of the front of the guys who pitted, so I didn’t come in and it’s not the first time I ignored him.”

With being light yesterday, today helped the driver of the Halmar International No. 44

“I really wanted to get that one for C.G.” He said “He Stepped up when we had problem and put me in the seat. He’s got a great race team there and equipment. I feel so bad he’s laying in a hospital bed banged up right now, he took a nasty lick. We won the race but didn’t get the check and I miscalculated, we put a bunch of lead in the car but we just didn’t get enough and with all the cautions it kind of just bit us.”

With the amount of cautions the normal 200 lap traffic wasn’t a factor Sunday afternoon.

“With only getting a little bit of gas in the car we needed that many cautions.” He said. “Kevin did a great job spotting and keeping track of the caution laps. The way this race normally plays out is your half under caution and it did that again. We were just able to log some laps and save some fuel.”

With the strategy playing out the way it did, the smart, long distance racing we’ve come to know from Stewart Friesen picked him up his second Eastern States 200 in three years. Kind of sounds familiar doesn’t it?