Stewart Friesen wins thrilling triple-overtime NASCAR Trucks race at Michigan
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
BROOKLYN, Mich.—Stewart Friesen hoisted his first trophy of the season in Saturday afternoon’s triple overtime DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 at Michigan International Speedway – a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race that didn’t want to end, ultimately featuring 24 extra laps.
The victory snapped a 72-race winless streak for the popular Canadian driver Friesen who had not been among the race’s frontrunners all day but was where he needed to be when it counted, collecting his first trophy since winning at Texas Motor Speedway back in 2022. His No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota beat Grant Enfinger’s Chevy by a slight .111-second – both drivers benefitting from a rash of late-race caution flags.
With most drivers opting for the outside row on the final restart, Friesen was able to move up and take that inside position on the front row alongside Enfinger. The two of them dueled it out over the next two overtime laps to settle the trophy. Neither had a win coming into the race.
“I don’t know what to say, thank you to Chris Halmar and all these sponsors and all these race fans, I know there’s a lot of Canadians and a lot of Americans,’’ Friesen said as the crowd began a huge roar of approval for the 41-year-old Ontario native as he celebrated his fourth career win.
While not a victory, the runner-up effort equaled a season-best (also at Las Vegas) for Enfinger and the CR7 Motorsports team.
“I don’t know,’’ he said when asked if there was anything he possibly could have done differently.
“We weren’t as good as we thought we were in practice, but man, Jeff kept swinging stuff at it and got gutsy with both calls, the call to stay out and the call to come in. …Feel like all in all, we executed to the best of our ability, but it just wasn’t meant to be.’’
ThorSport Racing’s Luke Fenhaus, who won his first career pole position for the race, finished third, followed by his teammate, two-time series champion Ben Rhodes and Spire Motorsports’ Corey LaJoie making only his sixth truck series start.
The opening two stages of the event went caution-free except for the stage breaks, but the final stage featured seven caution flags. The overtime periods put a dramatic spin on the win.
A big wreck on a restart with five laps remaining eliminated several of the day’s strongest competitors – Ross Chastain, who was leading at the time and championship leader Corey Heim, who swept both stages and led 29 laps running top five most of the day.
It all created a seemingly dream scenario for another of the race’s best – NASCAR Cup Series regular and Michigan native, Carson Hocevar, who was trying to win his first national series race at his home track. He survived much of the late race melee only to get a penalty following the second overtime green flag for pulling out of line too early on the restart.
He led a race 56 laps but ultimately finished 11th.
Matt Crafton, Jake Garcia, Chandler Smith, rookie Andres Perez De Lara and Layne Riggs rounded out the top-10 in the first NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at the track since 2020. Actor Frankie Muniz finished 14th – his best finish since a 10th place in the Daytona season-opener.
Despite his 18th place finish, Heim stretched out his championship lead and now holds a 133-point advantage over Chandler Smith.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series takes a week off while the NASCAR Xfinity and Cup Series race in Mexico City next weekend. The trucks resume competition on June 20 in the Miller Tech Battery 200 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (5 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Heim is the defending race winner.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Points Report
Michigan International Speedway
DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 Powered by Precision Vehicle Logistics
UNOFFICIAL Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 6/7/2025 @ 04:23 PM Eastern UNOFFICIAL
Rank Driver Car Starts GL Points Ldr Nxt Race Wins Stage Wins Playoff Pts
1. Corey Heim 11 13 0 605 0 0 4 11 31
2. Chandler Smith 38 13 1 472 -133 133 2 1 11
3. Daniel Hemric 19 13 -1 454 -151 18 1 0 5
4. Grant Enfinger 9 13 1 441 -164 13 0 2 2
5. Tyler Ankrum 18 13 -1 424 -181 17 1 1 6
6. Layne Riggs 34 13 0 424 -181 0 0 3 3
7. Kaden Honeycutt 45 13 0 408 -197 16 0 0 0
8. Ty Majeski 98 13 1 393 -212 15 0 1 1
9. Jake Garcia 13 13 -1 389 -216 4 0 0 0
10. Stewart Friesen 52 13 2 347 -258 42 1 0 5
11. Ben Rhodes 99 13 2 338 -267 9 0 1 1
12. Giovanni Ruggiero # 17 13 -1 337 -268 1 0 1 1
13. Rajah Caruth 71 13 -3 336 -269 1 1 0 5
14. Tanner Gray 15 13 0 297 -308 39 0 0 0
15. Matt Crafton 88 13 0 281 -324 16 0 1 1
16. Jack Wood 91 13 0 249 -356 32 0 1 1
17. Andres Perez De Lara # 77 13 1 247 -358 2 0 0 0
18. Connor Mosack # 81 13 2 247 -358 0 0 0 0
19. Matt Mills 42 13 -2 245 -360 2 0 0 0
20. Dawson Sutton # 26 13 -1 241 -364 4 0 0 0
21. Spencer Boyd 76 13 1 196 -409 45 0 0 0
22. Bayley Currey 8 -1 185 -420 11 0 1 0
23. Luke Fenhaus 66 9 2 168 -437 17 0 0 0
24. Toni Breidinger # 5 13 -1 166 -439 2 0 0 0
25. Frankie Muniz # 33 13 -1 155 -450 11 0 0 0
26. Nathan Byrd 02 11 0 118 -487 37 0 0 0
27. Josh Reaume 22 5 0 78 -527 40 0 0 0
28. Parker Kligerman 4 0 61 -544 17 0 0 0
29. Timmy Hill 3 0 60 -545 1 0 0 0
30. Stefan Parsons 3 0 59 -546 1 0 0 0
31. Cody Dennison 5 0 58 -547 1 0 0 0
32. Luke Baldwin 3 0 46 -559 12 0 0 0
33. Justin Carroll 5 0 46 -559 0 0 0 0
34. Lawless Alan 1 2 1 40 -565 6 0 0 0
35. Norm Benning 6 6 -1 37 -568 3 0 0 0
36. Corey LaJoie 07 1 -36 32 -573 5 0 0 0
37. Jason White 1 -1 29 -576 3 0 0 0
38. Johnny Sauter 1 -1 29 -576 0 0 0 0
39. Bj Mcleod 1 -1 22 -583 7 0 0 0
40. Morgen Baird 2 2 3 20 -585 2 0 0 0
41. Patrick Emerling 1 -2 18 -587 2 0 0 0
42. Brent Crews 1 -2 18 -587 0 0 0 0
43. Stephen Mallozzi 4 -2 15 -590 3 0 0 0
44. Matthew Gould 1 -2 14 -591 1 0 0 0
45. Keith Mcgee 2 -1 12 -593 2 0 0 0
46. Akinori Ogata 2 -1 11 -594 1 0 0 0
47. Conner Jones 1 -1 10 -595 1 0 0 0
48. Clayton Green 1 -1 10 -595 0 0 0 0
49. Jayson Alexander 1 -1 7 -598 3 0 0 0
50. Ryan Roulette 2 -1 7 -598 0 0 0 0
51. Michel Disdier 1 -1 6 -599 1 0 0 0
52. Alan Waller 1 -1 6 -599 0 0 0 0
53. Clay Greenfield 1 -1 4 -601 2 0 0 0
54. Derek White 1 -1 4 -601 0 0 0 0
55. Kyle Busch(i) 4 -1 0 -605 4 1 1 0
56. Kyle Larson(i) 2 -1 0 -605 0 1 0 0
57. Carson Hocevar(i) 7 3 -1 0 -605 0 1 1 0
58. William Byron(i) 2 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
59. Ross Chastain(i) 44 3 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
60. Justin Haley(i) 2 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
61. Corey Day(i) 6 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
62. Brandon Jones(i) 6 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
63. William Sawalich(i) 4 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
64. Sammy Smith(i) 2 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
65. Michael Mcdowell(i) 2 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
66. Nicholas Sanchez(i) 1 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
67. Mason Maggio(i) 2 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
68. Patrick Staropoli(i) 2 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
69. Tyler Tomassi(i) 3 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
70. Bryan Dauzat 0 -1 0 -605 0 0 0 0
-Ldr/-Nxt = Points behind Leader/Next higher, (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
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