RPW Column: Stewart Friesen Had The Perfect Storm Thursday Night, Until It Wasn’t So Perfect
Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – BARBERVILLE, FL – It was the perfect storm for Stewart Friesen to be able to run at both the Daytona International Speedway and Volusia Speedway Park on the same night.
However, Mother Nature intervened.
Plans were in place for Friesen to practice his Halmar International #52 NASCAR Truck series Toyota at the famed superspeedway late afternoon on Thursday before hightailing it to Volusia to hopefully run the 30-lap Super DIRTcar Series Modified main event.
With all drivers making the field each night so far, Friesen had a little bit of a time buffer to make it back to the dirt track.
Then, the rains came during the middle of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series heat races. The Modified qualifiers were to follow, so that only meant Friesen would have to start in the rear of his heat since he missed time trials.
“We got back at Volusia in time for the heats,” Friesen said. “Tommy (Conroy) and the 44 team had the car warmed up and ready to go.”
Unfortunately, with the long delay, the Sprakers, NY driver had to look at what was more important…waiting out the rain to run his Big Block, or getting a good night’s rest so he could go after his third career Truck Series win on NASCAR’s biggest stage.
“Due to rain delaying the program to an unknown time, we made the tough decision to focus on our commitments at Daytona Friday,” he said.
With that, Friesen wasn’t around to compete in the Modified main event when the clock switched to Friday. However, he gave series officials credit for doing what they could to get the event in.
“I applaud the Super DIRTcar Series for pushing to get the show in for their fans,” he said. “We look forward to returning to Volusia on Saturday.”
On Thursday at the World Center of Racing, Friesen was able to place seventh in practice for the NextEra Energy 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. He was just .047 seconds off of the quickest driver, Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Chandler Smith.
