In A Nutshell
In a three-overtime slugfest that saw most of the top runners wrecked on a restart and more drivers finding trouble, Stewart Friesen finally snapped a 72-race winless drought to win the DQS 250 at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday (June 7).
Friesen snatched the lead away on the final overtime restart from Grant Enfinger, holding off the No. 9 to a runner-up finish. First time pole-sitter Luke Fenhaus completed the top three, capping off a career day for the young Wisconsinite.
The Top Truckers at Michigan International Speedway
Winner: Stewart Friesen
Polesitter: Luke Fenhaus
Stage 1 & 2 Winner: Corey Heim
Most Laps Led: Carson Hocevar (56 of 139 laps)
Fastest Lap: Kaden Honeycutt (38.93 seconds, 184.947 mph — lap 93)
Biggest Mover: Chandler Smith (started 31st, finished eighth)
The Winning Move
What was a relatively tame, yet entertaining race turned into utter chaos throughout the final stage, as cautions continued to stack the field back up. A six-truck battle for the lead was wiped away after an incredible save by Ross Chastain and debris from Layne Riggs hitting the wall brought out a late caution.
As the field came to the restart zone, several trucks gave pushes that those in front of them couldn’t take. The same thing happened with the front row of Chastain and Gio Ruggiero, who got too big of a push from Tanner Gray and Corey Heim, respectively and ended up crashing in front of the field, taking Heim, Gray and several other frontrunners with them.
Gray would actually get the credit for leading that lap … though he was completely backwards when he crossed the line.
After getting “Tri-conned” as Niece Motorsports called it (as three TRICON Garage trucks crashed around the lone Niece truck), the lead turned over to Corey LaJoie, making his first start of the season.
He held the lead through the first overtime restart, but separate incidents where both Lawless Alan and Daniel Hemric ended up in the wall brought out another caution and led to a second overtime.
The second overtime saw LaJoie passed by Enfinger for the lead when yet another caution came out, this time for a spinning Jack Wood, along with a few other trucks.
Coming to the choose for what would be the final restart of the day, the top three trucks at the time all took the outside lane, gifting Friesen, running fourth at the time, a front row start. He used that to his advantage. After battling side-by-side with Enfinger for most of the penultimate lap, the Canadian cleared the No. 9 and held off Enfinger’s aggressive drafting tactics to take home his first victory since Texas Motor Speedway in 2022.
Playoff Rundown
Two weeks ago, just four drivers were locked into the playoffs via wins. Now, we have six with Friesen’s victory. That leaves four spots available via points. Could we see more than 10 winners this season? Perhaps, if we get another new winner quickly.
Enfinger leads the group of four who are currently in the playoffs via points, holding a 52-point gap over the cut line, where Jake Garcia sits just underneath. Riggs has a 35-point lead over Garcia, while Kaden Honeycutt has a 20-point gap.
On the cut line, however? Defending champion Ty Majeski, who sits just four points above his teammate for the final playoff spot currently.
Meanwhile, Heim continues to lead the regular season standings with a whopping 133-point lead over Chandler Smith. Barring a monumental collapse, it looks like Heim is well on his way to another regular season championship and additional 15 playoff points — something the field doesn’t want to see.
With still five races to go until the playoffs, there’s still a lot left to be determined within the playoff field.
Rookie Report
Rookie of the Race: One race into his new nine-race Truck Series deal, and LaJoie is already stacking top fives. Making just his sixth career start in the Truck Series, LaJoie found himself up front late, and had a legitimate shot to win before getting passed on the second overtime restart. He was never able to get back to the lead, but still finished a respectable fifth, earning this week’s Rookie of the Race.
No. 2 — Morgen Baird (29th)
No. 5 — Toni Breidinger* (22nd)
No. 07 — Corey LaJoie (fifth)
No. 17 — Gio Ruggiero* (12th)
No. 26 — Dawson Sutton* (13th)
No. 33 — Frankie Muniz* (14th)
No. 77 — Andres Perez* (ninth)
No. 81 — Connor Mosack* (19th)
*Denotes 2025 Rookie of the Year contender
One Big Takeaway From This Race
A few weeks ago, Friesen crashed out of the Truck Series race at Rockingham Speedway in a continuation of a poor start to the season — one that included narrowly losing a race at Atlanta Motor Speedway (now EchoPark Speedway) to Kyle Busch at the absolute last second.
After angrily jumping out of his destroyed No. 52 at Rockingham, he beelined for his pit box, shared some angry words with his crew (particularly his crew chief Jimmy Villeneuve) before storming off to the infield care center.
“It is what it is,” Friesen told FOX Sports in his post-care center interview. “I’ll tell you, the last two weeks, we’ve had really fast trucks but it really makes me question if all these headaches are even freaking worth it anymore. It’s what I’ve wanted to do my whole life — race at this level. The top two series are not in my lifetime so this is what I live and die for. I don’t know, maybe not worth it anymore.”
In other post-race media, Friesen lamented that maybe he just belonged on dirt.
There was clear mental exhaustion from Friesen, compounded by not being able to come close to victory lane that much since his last triumph at Texas in 2022. Later in the week, Friesen walked back his comments, saying there were things he regretted saying in the moment upon emerging from the care center.
Coincidentally, the winner of the Rockingham race, Tyler Ankrum, also snapped a 70+ race winless streak. A few weeks later, now Friesen snapped a winless streak of over 70 races of his own.
Does Friesen belong on the dirt? Yes, absolutely — that’s his background and he’s dominant on the dirt.
But Saturday’s win proves he’s still got it in NASCAR as well.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Nathan Byrd and Young’s Motorsports brought a bright red and white Chevrolet Silverado RST to the Irish Hills with sponsorship from RCA on the hood.
Part of what makes Byrd’s truck look good is the inverse number colors — the red No. 02 on top of white paint on the sides of the truck, combined with a white No. 02 on top of red paint on the roof. That intentional design, plus the overall pattern of the paint scheme made it stand out in the Michigan sun.
Byrd qualified 28th and finished 30th — he crashed out of the race late in a hard crash with Morgen Baird that resulted in a red flag to fix part of the outside wall.
Next Stop
We’re trading in the Irish Hills for the Pocono Mountains.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has a week off for the first time since the final weekend of April. After that, the series heads to Pocono Raceway on June 20. The race has an additional 25 miles compared to last year, which is consistent with recent years prior to 2024. Shockingly, Heim is the defending winner of the race.
Coverage for the MillerTech Battery 200 begins at approximately 5 p.m. ET on Friday, June 20. Television coverage shifts back to FOX Sports 1, while the all-new NASCAR Racing Network continues its exclusive season-long radio coverage of the Truck Series.
Follow @AnthonyDamcott on X.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.