Halmar Friesen Racing
 | |
| Owner(s) | Chris Larsen Stewart Friesen |
|---|---|
| Base | Statesville, North Carolina |
| Series | NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series |
| Race drivers | 52. Stewart Friesen 62. Wesley Slimp (part-time) |
| Sponsors | 52. Halmar International 62. HNTB |
| Manufacturer | Toyota |
| Opened | 2016 |
| Career | |
| Debut | 2016 Aspen Dental Eldora Dirt Derby (Eldora) |
| Latest race | 2025 LiUNA! 150 (Lime Rock) |
| Races competed | 204 |
| Drivers' Championships | 0 |
| Race victories | 4 |
| Pole positions | 3 |
Halmar Friesen Racing, also known as Halmar Racing Team, is an American professional stock car racing and dirt track racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, fielding the No. 52 Toyota Tundra full-time for Stewart Friesen and part-time fielding the No. 62 Toyota for Wesley Slimp.
The team also fields modified racing cars for several drivers around the Northeastern United States, including for Stewart and his wife Jessica.
Craftsman Truck Series
[edit]
Truck No. 16 history
[edit]
- Stewart Friesen (2016)
The team ran part-time in 2016, using the No. 16 and entering the short track races with Friesen as driver.[1] For the team's debut race at Eldora, the truck had a body from Kyle Busch Motorsports and an engine from Richard Childress Racing.[2]
Truck No. 16 results
[edit]| Year | Driver | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | NCTC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Stewart Friesen | 16 | Chevy | DAY | ATL | MAR | KAN | DOV | CLT | TEX | IOW | GTW | KEN | ELD 28 |
POC | BRI 22 |
MCH | MSP | CHI | NHA 13 |
LVS 19 |
TAL | MAR | TEX | PHO 18 |
HOM 29 |
33rd | 69 |
Truck No. 52 history
[edit]
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- Stewart Friesen (2017–present)
In 2017, the team announced plans to run the full Truck Series schedule as Halmar Friesen Racing with Friesen driving the renumbered No. 52 truck.[3] HFR hired Cup Series team owner Tommy Baldwin Jr. of Tommy Baldwin Racing (which reduced from a full-time to a part-time Cup Series schedule in 2017) to serve as team manager.[4] After the June Texas race, the team announced a two-race hiatus and that they would return in Kentucky in July.[5] Friesen captured the pole for the 2017 Eldora Dirt Derby and finished second to Matt Crafton in the race after leading over half of the laps.[6] On August 23, HFR announced the end of its partnership with Baldwin and the start of a new technical alliance with GMS Racing.[7] The same day the team announce that Tommy Baldwin's brother in law, longtime NASCAR crew chief, Trip Bruce would take over running the team and has remained a staple at HFR from 2018 to 2021 as Stewart's Crew Chief and in 2022 moved into the role of Director of Competition.
For 2018, HFR continued the alliance with GMS, so much so that GMS driver Johnny Sauter referenced Friesen as a teammate. After advancing to the playoffs and a best finish of second on three occasions throughout the year, he finished seventh in the final points standings after being eliminated in the Round of 8.
On July 11, 2019, NASCAR confiscated the No. 52 truck before the Kentucky race after discovering an issue with the firewall during pre-race inspection. The team was able to use their backup truck, which finished second in the race.[8] On August 1, 2019, Friesen finally broke through to win his first career NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race at Eldora.[9] Friesen would also go onto win at Phoenix Raceway later that year.
On December 3, 2019, it was announced that the team would switch from Chevrolet to Toyota in an alliance with Kyle Busch Motorsports starting in 2020, thus ending their previous alliance with GMS Racing.[10] In 2020, after Friesen missed the playoffs, he decided to skip the race at Kansas Speedway in October in order to compete in a dirt race on the same day. Timothy Peters would fill in for Friesen in the No. 52 in the Truck Series race.[11] Friesen would run his fourth full season in the Truck Series in 2021 and would make the playoffs again despite not winning any races that year.
On May 20, 2022, Friesen broke a 54-race winless streak in the Truck Series by scoring his third career victory at Texas Motor Speedway after passing Christian Eckes for the lead in overtime. Friesen returned to the Truck Series in 2023. He scored five top 5s and seven top 10s, but went winless and missed the playoffs. He finished 12th in the final standings. The 2024 season would follow a similar trend, with Friesen scoring seven top 10 finishes and one top 5, as well as a pole at Nashville. He would again finish 12th in the standings.
Friesen started the 2025 season with a 23rd-place finish at Daytona. Friesen broke a 72-race drought with a win at Michigan in triple-overtime.[12]
Truck No. 52 results
[edit]Truck No. 62 history
[edit]
- Jessica Friesen (2021)
On March 11, 2021, Jessica Friesen announced that she would make her Truck Series debut in the Pinty's Dirt Truck Race alongside her husband in the No. 62. However, she failed to qualify after rain washed out the heat races. Instead, she would make her debut in the other dirt race for the Truck Series at Knoxville Raceway, the Corn Belt 150.
- Multiple drivers (2022)
After having not driven in NASCAR for five years, Todd Bodine returned to the Truck Series to drive for Halmar Friesen Racing in the No. 62 at Las Vegas. The CEO of series title sponsor Camping World, Marcus Lemonis, stated that Camping World would sponsor Bodine for 6 races to get him to 800 overall starts in NASCAR. Bodine would complete in the 6 races during which he would finish 5 races, lead 3 laps, and score a top ten finish at Darlington Raceway. In his 800th and final overall NASCAR at Pocono Raceway, Bodine would finish 36th after he crashed 12 laps into the race.[13] On March 28, 2022, the team announced that Jessica Friesen would return to drive the No. 62 in the two dirt races again.[14] She would fail to qualify at Bristol for the second consecutive year. She would go onto to race at Knoxville where she had a rollover crash after hitting the tracks berm that was not shown in the fox sports broadcast of the race. In July 2022 it was announced that NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series driver Layne Riggs would make his debut driving the truck at the 2022 race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and would finish 7th, at the next race at Richmond Raceway he would qualify 4th but would finish 19th 2 laps down.[15] Riggs would make his final start of the year at the season finale at Phoenix Raceway where he would qualify 2nd and lead five laps early in the race, but he would later drop back and finish 13th.[16]
- Jessica Friesen (2023)
In 2023, Jessica would return to the series but would fail to qualify for the Bristol Dirt Race.
- Wesley Slimp (2025)
On June 23, 2025, it was announced that Wesley Slimp would compete in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for the race at Lime Rock Park.[17]
Truck No. 62 results
[edit]| Year | Driver | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | NCTC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Jessica Friesen | 62 | Toyota | DAY | DRC | LVS | ATL | BRD DNQ |
RCH | KAN | DAR | COA | CLT | TEX | NSH | POC | KNX 26 |
GLN | GTW | DAR | BRI | LVS | TAL | MAR | PHO | 78th | 11 | |||
| 2022 | Todd Bodine | DAY | LVS 21 |
ATL | COA | MAR | DAR 10 |
KAN | TEX 13 |
CLT | GTW | SON 20 |
NSH 27 |
MOH | POC 36 |
|||||||||||||||
| Jessica Friesen | BRD DNQ |
KNX 34 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Layne Riggs | IRP 7 |
RCH 19 |
KAN | BRI | TAL | HOM | PHO 13 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2023 | Jessica Friesen | DAY | LVS | ATL | COA | TEX | BRD DNQ |
MAR | KAN | DAR | NWS | CLT | GTW | NSH | MOH | POC | RCH | IRP | MLW | KAN | BRI | TAL | HOM | PHO | ||||||
| 2025 | Wesley Slimp | DAY | ATL | LVS | HOM | MAR | BRI | CAR | TEX | KAN | NWS | CLT | NSH | MCH | POC | LRP 33 |
IRP | GLN | RCH | DAR | BRI | NHA | ROV | TAL | MAR | PHO | ||||
References
[edit]- ^ "Camping World Truck Statistics: Stewart Friesen - 2016 [DriverAverages.com]". www.driveraverages.com. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ^ "Stewart Friesen: The Eyes of the Northeast Were on You – DTD Exclusive". Dirt Track Digest. July 22, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ^ "Halmar Friesen Racing Announces NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Debut - NASCAR Camping World Truck Series News - MRN.com". www.mrn.com. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ^ McFadin, Daniel (January 9, 2017). "Halmar Friesen Racing enters Truck Series under leadership of Tommy Baldwin". NBC Sports. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
- ^ "Halmar Friesen Racing taking two-week hiatus from Truck competition". Jayski's Silly Season Site. ESPN. June 13, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
- ^ "Stewart Friesen finishes 2nd in NASCAR Trucks race at Eldora Speedway". syracuse.com. July 20, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
- ^ Bonkowski, Jerry (August 23, 2017). "Halmar Friesen Racing Truck team splits with Tommy Baldwin Jr., forms alliance with GMS Racing". NBC Sports. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
- ^ "NASCAR confiscates No. 52 truck from Halmar Racing". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. July 11, 2019. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
- ^ "Stewart Friesen scores first Gander Trucks victory, wins at Eldora". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. August 1, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
- ^ Rutherford, Kevin (December 3, 2020). "Stewart Friesen Remaining in Truck Series, Moving to Toyota in 2020". Frontstretch. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
- ^ Gillispie, Zach (October 9, 2020). "Timothy Peters Replacing Stewart Friesen at Kansas". Frontstretch. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
- ^ "Stewart Friesen wins thrilling triple-overtime NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Michigan". Jayski's Silly Season Site. NASCAR Digital Media. June 7, 2025. Retrieved June 8, 2025.
- ^ "Bodine Making Truck Return with Halmar Friesen Racing". December 13, 2021.
- ^ "Jessica Friesen Returning to Truck Racing at Bristol, Knoxville Dirt Races". Jayski's Silly Season Site. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. March 29, 2022.
- ^ "Layne Riggs to Make Truck Debut at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park". Jayski's NASCAR Silly Season Site. July 19, 2022. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
- ^ "2022 NASCAR Truck Results, Standings, Rankings and Statistics". us.motorsport.com. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
- ^ Wayman, Declan [@declan_wayman] (June 23, 2025). "NEWS: Road racing specialist Wesley Slimp will make his NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series debut for Halmar Friesen Racing @StewartFriesen at Lime Rock Park on June 28. He will drive the No. 62 Toyota Tundra. Slimp tested in the truck previously this year at Carolina Motorsports Park. #NASCAR" (Tweet). Retrieved June 23, 2025 – via Twitter.