FONDA, N.Y. — After a fourth-place finish in the Camping World Truck Series at IRP on Friday evening, Stewart Friesen was back home at Fonda Speedway on Saturday evening for Parks Companies Night.
When the checkered flag flew to complete the 30-lap Sunoco Modified feature event, Friesen was the winner.
“Racing with Rocky [Warner] and [Buddy] Hackel there was tough,” Friesen said in victory lane. “Everybody was trying to race to the front and the track definitely had some character tonight, it was really fast. I found a line up on the cushion in one and was able to hold a lot of speed.
“Had a great car tonight, a great engine, and thanks to everyone at Fonda for sticking it out tonight. It’s been a late one.”
Other winners at Fonda on Parks Companies Night included Clayton DuMond (Swagger Factory Apparel Crate 602 Sportsman), Ivan Joslin (Algonkin Motel Pro Stock), Wesley Sutliff (Montgomery County Office for Aging Inc. Limited Sportsman), Ken Hollenback (SOHC) and Kerrie Hollenback (DOHC), and Jordan Hutton (CRSA Sprints).
The Sunoco Modified feature began with Tucker O’Connor leading at the drop of Joe Kriss’ green flag from his pole position start with outside pole starter Craig Hanson in tow. Hanson got by O’Connor for the lead on the outside at the finish line on lap four, with Hackel also getting by O’Connor for the second spot.
The yellow flag was out on lap five for Chris Curtis who clipped the inside wall in turn two and shot to the outside of the track with Brian Gleason making hard contact with the rear of Curtis.
Gleason was able to go to the hot pit and continue on at the rear of the field, while Curtis was out for the evening.
Hackel led on the restart with tenth place starter Rocky Warner, 12th place starter Stewart Friesen and 11th place starter Jessica Friesen also getting by Hanson for positions second through fourth.
The top three of Hackel, Warner and Stewart Friesen were nose to tail on lap 12 for the lead.
At the halfway point in the event, Hackel continued to lead and was followed in the top five by Stewart Friesen, Warner, Jessica Friesen and Bobby Varin. On the outside of turn two with 10 laps to go, Stewart Friesen took over the lead with Warner also making a pass on Hackel for the second position.
Heavy lap traffic came into play at this point with Stewart Friesen attempting to move past the lapped car of Ryan Odasz who was racing hard for positions of his own with the cars around him.
When Stewart Friesen cleared the lap cars of Odasz and Darwin Greene, it provided a little breathing room since Warner was still stuck behind them. When George Foley slowed on the front stretch on lap 28, it brought out the caution and cleared the lap cars from the front of the field.
Stewart Friesen pulled away on the single file restart.
Stewart Friesen led the remaining laps for his fifth win of the season and the 84th time of his career at Fonda in the Halmar No. 44 Bicknell car. He was followed in the top five by Warner, Hackel, Varin and 24th place starter David Schilling.
For Warner, it was his fourth consecutive second place finish in the last four feature events.
“Hackel has been doing a real good job coming over here from the Valley, he figured out the line up on the cushion, so I figured well it’s pretty slick on the bottom, so I’ll just follow him,” Friesen added. “Then we got a caution there and got some clean air for the last couple of laps.”