NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Stewart Friesen suffered multiple injuries Monday night (July 28) in a serious crash during the Super DIRTcar Series King of the North event at Autodrome Drummond near Drummondville, Quebec. He is currently at the hospital, awaiting surgery.
Friesen’s wife, Jessica Friesen, released a statement Tuesday morning detailing’s Stewart Friesen’s injury. His pelvis is broken in multiple places, making it unstable. In addition, he has a broken right leg.
On lap 16 of the race, Friesen attempted to sweep to the outside of Steve Bernard for fifth entering turn 3. He then hit the outside wall, which launched his car into a series of flips before being hit by Alex Yankowski and Justin Stone while on fire before coming to rest. The hit from Yankowski came to the bottom of the chassis.
The race was immediately red-flagged and safety crews tended to Friesen’s medical needs. Throughout the time that he was still in the car, Friesen was in communication with safety crews, but in a lot of pain. The injuries, specifically the multiple pelvic fractures, made it very difficult for the crews to stabilize him enough to get him out of the car.
It was roughly 30 minutes before the safety crews were able to get Friesen out of his car. Once out, he was immediately taken to a local hospital. Since then, he has been transferred to a larger facility for needed surgical intervention.
The injuries suffered will mean that Friesen will miss time in the Craftsman Truck Series. It is unclear how long that he will be out, but the recovery time from these injuries could be significant.
Prior to the crash, Friesen locked himself into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs by winning the DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 at Michigan International Speedway in June. Regardless of Friesen’s availability, the No. 52 team will remain in the owner’s playoffs.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the Frontstretch Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
Ah man. I really like Friesen. He seems to be very much a throwback to a bygone era, both in the construction of his team, and in the way he drives. Mostly self-funded, and drives aggressively but not recklessly.
Obviously, as with anyone else, I hope he recovers with no long term medical issues following this. That’s more important than any trophies or teams.
I am curious who they’ll put in the truck. I know his wife has limited Truck experience, and if I recall, ran pretty respectably.
Understandably, she may want/need to be there during Stewart’s recovery, but it would be an amazing story if she took the wheel to help keep the team afloat during this time of unknowns for Stewart. I would think sponsors would line up out the door to be associated with a family effort to hold it all together.
That would be a great story. Could get a sponsor some good PR and quality TV time.
Terrrible on track incident that hopefully he comes back from Give Treyton Lapcevich a chance to drive and prove himself before the playoff run starts 2 ARCA starts results in 1st and 3rd the talent is there