John Hunter Nemechek will compete in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway in a second Halmar Friesen Racing truck, the team announced Tuesday (Jan. 27).
Nemechek will drive the No. 62 with sponsorship from DriveValue.com, according to a press release from HFR, which also confirmed that the No. 62 would run full-time in 2026. He will serve as a teammate to Stewart Friesen, who is expected to return to the No. 52 full-time following his nasty Super DIRTcar Series crash in July that left him with an open-book fracture of the pelvis and a fractured right leg that sidelined him for the rest of the 2025 season.
“I’m really excited to get back behind the wheel in the Truck Series, especially at a place like Daytona,” Nemechek said in the release. “I’m extremely grateful to Halmar Friesen Racing and Stewart [Friesen] for the opportunity to drive the No. 62 Toyota. Daytona is such a special track, and any time you get the chance to compete there, it means a lot. I’m looking forward to making the most of this opportunity and having a strong run with the support of HFR and DriveValue.com.”
“I speak for everyone at HFR by saying how pumped we are to have John Hunter kick off our first season as a full-time two-truck team at Daytona,” Friesen added. “His track record and experience speaks for itself, and we all know he will do a great job competing for a win in the biggest race of the year. We also welcome the DriveValue.com team to the Craftsman Truck Series and are thankful for their support of John Hunter at the World Center of Racing.”
A second full-time truck had long been rumored for HFR for 2026, with Friesen’s crew chief Jimmy Villeneuve saying the “plan is to go to two full-time trucks next year” when speaking to SiriusXM late in the 2025 season, but the press release officially confirms the plan to run two trucks full-time in 2026.
HFR ran the No. 62 six times in 2026 — Wesley Slimp ran three races, Cole Butcher ran two and Michael Christopher Jr. ran one. The truck’s best finish came at Watkins Glen International with Slimp at the wheel, finishing 12th in the team’s first race following Friesen’s crash.
No other driver beyond Nemechek has been announced for the truck.
Nemechek is a 13-time winner in the Truck Series. He most recently competed in the series in 2023, running two races for TRICON Garage as a fill-in for Taylor Gray until he became old enough to run the truck full-time. Nemechek is currently set to compete in his third-straight full-time Cup Series season with Legacy Motor Club.