MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Husband and wife duo Stewart and Jessica Friesen are no strangers to competing against one another on the race track.
However, next weekend at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, they’ll take that spirit of competition to a whole new level.
The Friesens will race against one another in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, both taking part in the Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt at the high-banked, half-mile race track.
Bristol’s usual concrete surface has been covered in 20,000 truck loads of clay for the 150-lap event. It will be the second venue that has hosted a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on dirt. Eldora Speedway hosted the Truck Series from 2013 to ’19.
It’s a perfect stage for the Friesens, who both cut their teeth in the Northeast racing big-block and small-block modifieds and met in the early 2000s, counting drivers meetings at New York’s Utica-Rome Speedway as early dates.
They’ll both drive Toyota Tundras for Halmar Friesen Racing at Bristol, with Stewart Friesen wheeling his usual No. 52 and Jessica Friesen taking the reins of the No. 62 in a second entry for the organization.
Though both Friesens are competitive by nature, they’re taking a “stronger together” approach into the Bristol dirt weekend, believing that both competing in the Truck Series will give the team as a whole a better chance at success.
“I think we’re taking it more as teammates than anything,” Stewart Friesen explained. “We’re not really competitive toward each other, before we get on the track at least. With the modified stuff over the last couple of years, we tried to work as teammates … and Jess has been awesome. Ever since she got back into modified racing and we’ve been able to race together, she’s been awesome. She’s a great teammate and I can bounce ideas off her and setup stuff. She’s very analytical about her car; she knows the springs and the shocks. She knows what goes into it. Having her on the same team helps a lot.”
“I’m just approaching it as just another race,” added Jessica Friesen. “There’s no pressure, I don’t think. I believe that Stewart actually puts more pressure on me racing (with) his modified team than he’s putting on me with this truck race, because we have a great crew at HFR and the equipment and the right people to get the job done. It’s just a very well-prepared organization. Some people thought it might be the opposite, but he’s actually putting a lot less pressure on me running the truck. I’m really excited about it.”
The Friesens finished first and second in a dirt modified race at Fonda (N.Y.) Speedway last summer, with Stewart besting Jessica in that Saturday-night affair.
It was one of the high points in a return to racing for Jessica Friesen, who stepped away from regular racing several years ago when the couple’s son, Parker, was born.
Diagnosed on the autistic spectrum at a young age, the now five-year-old Parker has settled into a more-regular routine over the last year, allowing Jessica Friesen to resume racing semi-regularly when her schedule – formed around the demands of a growing screen-printing business – allows her to do so.
Despite less laps on-track than her husband has, Jessica Friesen doesn’t believe she’ll be at much of a disadvantage when she straps in to compete with the stars of the Truck Series next weekend.
“The last six years have definitely made it where I don’t have the track time and don’t have the experience that I wish I did, compared to the people I’ll be racing against. But I feel like everything is prepped and I’m in a great situation, which is important,” she noted. “We have a great team, we have great equipment, and I have the best teammate on the track.”
“She’s obligated to say that,” Stewart Friesen cut in, chuckling.
“It’s going to be a huge learning experience, but I’m going to soak it up and take it in, and just learn from it to see where we stack up and what this could lead to,” Jessica Friesen added. “I’m going to get to run some modified races in Pennsylvania to try and knock a little bit of rust off and get back out there, and I think that will help, even though it’s a totally different discipline. There’s a lot going into this endeavor.”
In regard to young Parker, Jessica Friesen admitted that he “doesn’t quite get yet” what will take place next weekend, but both she and Stewart are glad that the Bristol weekend can be a family affair for them.
“He’s still very confused on that, I think,” she said. “He says, ‘No, Mom. Dad races the truck, you race the modified, and trucks don’t race on dirt, trucks race on the pavement.’ So he was just kind of getting his mind wrapped around all that. He was still, two years ago at Eldora (Speedway), a little bit young to really soak it all up and quite understand exactly what was going on.”
The Friesens will become the second husband and wife duo to compete in NASCAR, joining Elton Sawyer and Patty Moise, but the first to do so in the Truck Series. It’s a historic moment they plan to relish.
“This will be a story for our grandkids someday,” Jessica Friesen said. “No matter what happens at this race, we went and did this. We kind of went out there, had fun and hopefully it turns out well. Who knows what could happen.
“Stewart says no pressure, so I’m just going to keep having that mentality.”
The Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt is scheduled for an 8 p.m. ET green flag on March 27, with live coverage on FS1, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.