The 2025 season got turned on its head for Stewart Friesen and Halmar Friesen Racing after Friesen’s nasty crash in a Super DIRTcar Series race in Canada.
Friesen’s open-book fracture of the pelvis and fractured right leg will keep him out of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series indefinitely — at least through the rest of the season.
After Christopher Bell wheeled Friesen’s No. 52 truck to a fourth-place finish at Watkins Glen International, the truck is now in the hands of Kaden Honeycutt for the rest of the season after Honeycutt was released from Niece Motorsports.
Unfortunately, the crash meant that Friesen was forced to relinquish his playoff spot, which he earned by winning at Michigan International Speedway.
While he could still apply for a playoff waiver, it would be meaningless, as he won’t return at all for the playoffs due to the severity of his injuries.
So why is NASCAR considering even the possibility of giving him one anyway?
It’s no secret that the year-end payout in all three of NASCAR’s premier series is considerably higher if you make the playoffs. Giving Friesen a waiver after his accident would allow him to cash in on a significant year-end bonus, even with missing the final few races of the year.
But the fact that there’s even a serious conversation about giving a driver who is out for the year a playoff waiver has to be one of the most moronic things NASCAR has ever considered.
And that’s saying a lot.
First, why would you reduce the competition of the playoff field? Friesen won’t be back, so having nine drivers to start the round of 10 is already misleading in and of itself. We talk so much about people who would “waste a spot in the playoffs” — if Friesen is granted a waiver, knowing that he won’t be back, that is the textbook definition of wasting a playoff spot.
Second, it’s unfair to the drivers actually competing for a playoff spot to award that spot to someone who won’t even be competing in it. The current cut line battle between Jake Garcia, Ben Rhodes and Gio Ruggiero — where they are all separated by just 21 points — could be all for naught, because NASCAR could give a waiver to a guy who won’t even be in a truck.
Finally, why would Halmar Friesen want this waiver anyway?
It already will be in the owners’ playoffs, and its new driver Honeycutt will also be in the drivers’ playoffs (barring a complete collapse at Richmond Raceway). What exactly is the point of awarding the waiver to Friesen in that case, other than monetary reasons?
NASCAR said it will make a decision on Friesen’s waiver by Friday — which is fantastic because that’s raceday for the Truck Series’ regular-season finale at Richmond. Several drivers and teams will have no idea what their strategy will be for attacking Richmond until NASCAR makes a decision.
And they won’t know until potentially just hours before race time.
NASCAR shouldn’t have even entertained this to begin with. There’s no reason why Friesen should be given a waiver just so he can sit in 10th and collect 10th-place prize money at season’s end. At no point should this have ever been a serious consideration.
If NASCAR knew any better, it would deny the waiver. But who knows what NASCAR is thinking anymore? It might decide it’d be better to grant the waiver. Or it’ll decide to add an 11th driver to the playoffs.
In that case, let’s add Jeff Gordon as well. Why not?
Ugh. I thought we were done with all this stupid waiver talk when the rules were changed over the offseason.
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.