Kevin Harvick‘s NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series bounty on Kyle Busch has exploded in popularity.
Halmar Racing’s Stewart Friesen is the latest to announce his involvement in the bounty hunt, where Harvick’s plan will award $100,000 to the first full-time Cup Series driver to beat Kyle Busch in Truck Series competition.
Busch won the first of his five scheduled races in 2020 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The defending Cup champion has races at Atlanta Motor Speedway (March 14), Homestead-Miami Speedway (March 20), Texas Motor Speedway (March 27) and Kansas Speedway (May 30).
While Friesen is not a full-time Cup driver, sponsor Halmar International is putting $50,000 on the line for any Truck Series regular that can outrun “Rowdy” in one of those four remaining races.
Chris is in! Halmar International is putting up 50g to the first @NASCAR_Trucks regular to beat @KyleBusch. This is cool! Game on! Looks like I’m still racing for that @BuschBeer though! @HalmarRacing @TeamToyota @rubbinisracing
— Stewart Friesen (@StewartFriesen) February 29, 2020
In addition to Friesen, Brennan Poole will also be eligible on the Cup Series side, running On Point Motorsports’ No. 29 truck.
Henderson Motorsports has also joined the conversation, tweeting back and forth with Barstool Sports and Clint Bowyer.
The team tweeted at Barstool president Dave Portnoy, saying they had a truck available and would field the truck for half the price.
Portnoy responded soon after, asking if Cup Series regular Clint Bowyer could drive it. Henderson replied with enthusiasm:
Let’s make it happen. We will make sure @ClintBowyer has a fresh Ford Performance body on it as well. https://t.co/0eKLgzlc2S
— HendersonRaceTeam (@HendersonRace) February 28, 2020
Bowyer has yet to respond via Twitter, however.
The team, which normally fields Chevrolet Silverados in the series, are willing to convert the body to a Ford F-150 to comply with Bowyer’s Cup manufacturer.
Longtime Henderson driver Parker Kligerman, who won at Talladega Superspeedway with the team in 2017 and ran select races for them until the end of 2019, tweeted his support as well.
I support this! Been trying to help @HendersonRace find a cup driver to compete in this challenge. This team can win… I know it.
— Parker Kligerman (@pkligerman) February 28, 2020
Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson were the first two drivers to announce their participation. Both will drive for GMS Racing in their attempts, with Elliott taking on Busch at Atlanta. Larson will compete at Homestead-Miami for the team.
Busch swept all five of his Truck Series starts in 2019.
About the author
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of VCU, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and also hosts the "Adam Cheek's Sports Week" podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.
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