OSWEGO, N.Y. — On a historic night for the Super DIRTcar Series, Stewart Friesen added a piece of his own history Saturday night at Oswego Speedway.
In the first Super DIRT Week main event run on Saturday night, Friesen led all 200 laps to score his sixth Billy Whittaker Cars 200 victory, tying Brett Hearn for the most all-time.
“Brett set the bar for our sport for a long time,” Friesen said. “This is it. This is the hardest race to win. The track changes so much. The tires come and go. Our guys worked hard to be better here at this place. I appreciate these guys so much.”
Friesen, the SRI Performance and Stock Car Steel Pole Award winner, led the field to the green in the Billy Whittaker Cars 200, jumping ahead of Fratto Curbing Outside Pole Award winner Darren Smith as the field thundered into Turns 1 and 2.
A caution for Rookie of the Year contender Alex Payne slowed the field on Lap 4. But when the race resumed, Friesen drove away from the field, showing dominance in the early stages.
Behind Friesen, Series points leader Matt Sheppard started climbing toward the front in search of his fourth 200 win, battling with Alex Yankowski and defending race winner Mat Williamson.
Sheppard and Yankowski traded the runner-up spot twice between Lap 40 and Lap 71 until Sheppard dove underneath Yankowski in Turn 4 to wrestle the position back.
In his two stints in second, Sheppard had a couple of opportunities to pass Friesen in traffic, but the No. 44 held him off each time.
Sheppard wasn’t the only car moving forward in the first 100 laps, as Jimmy Phelps picked off cars one by one, moving into fourth from his ninth starting position by Lap 82.
After a competition caution allowed to field to make adjustments and take fuel at Lap 100, Friesen continued his lead when the race resumed on Lap 101.
Friesen, Sheppard, and Yankowski maintained their positions for 15 laps, but positions behind them shuffled on a Lap-118 restart.
When the field raced into Turns 1 and 2, Williamson slid high in Turn 2, hitting the outside wall. While the Buzz Chew Chevrolet No. 88 kept moving, it allowed Phelps to sneak under him and take away fourth down the backstretch.
Phelps didn’t stop there, moving up to third when he drove underneath Yankowski on Lap 120. Then, after a caution for Jeremy Pitts, Phelps used the inside lane on the restart to storm past Sheppard for second on Lap 134.
From there, Phelps chased Friesen for the lead, aiming for his first Billy Whittaker Cars 200 win after finishing second in 2010.
Friesen caught the tail of the field again on Lap 164, trying to navigate through lap traffic while holding off the challenges of the No. 98h. Phelps tried sneaking past Friesen on the bottom in Turns 1 and 2, but Friesen used Marc Johnson, a lap car, as a pick through the corner, allowing him to stay ahead of the “Baldwinsville Bandit.”
On a restart with 30 laps to go, Friesen stormed ahead of the field again, taking advantage of his car’s ability on short runs.
He stayed ahead of Phelps for the next 13 laps before driving away on another restart on Lap 187.
But Friesen couldn’t get away this time, as Phelps cut the lead to eight-tenths of a second with six laps to go. However, that was as close as Phelps would get, as the caution flew again for Tanner Van Doren on Lap 196.
When the race resumed for the final time, Phelps tried to stay with Friesen but couldn’t get by him at the end as Friesen held on for the $52,000 victory, becoming the first driver to lead all 200 laps in the event.
While Friesen looked dominant out front, he said he struggled after the first few laps on restarts.
“We fired in the second hundred really good,” Friesen said. “We had Williamson, Sheppard, [Yankowski]; I mean, it was tough. They threw everything they had, and we were able to hold them off.
“I could bang out a couple of fast laps there on the restart, and then I started skating for a bit. Then we got to lap traffic, and those guys were running the same lanes I wanted to run. We slowed down a bit, so I figured [Phelps] had to be really close.”
Phelps settled for second, his fourth Billy Whittaker Cars 200 podium.
“It stings a little,” Phelps said. “It seemed like our car was really good after we got some tire heat built up. I knew the car would be able to cut harder in the middle to be able to get to the infield to catch that brown. On the short runs, all I could do was really stay in his tire tracks enough to keep pace.
“A great run for us, but I thought we had a car we thought could win the race.”
Willamson crossed the line third, his fifth consecutive Billy Whittaker Cars 200 podium.
“I was tight at the beginning,” Williamson said. “I kind of put an emphasis on not changing the car too much this week. It probably bit us in the ass. I beat the crap out of the car, and it says a lot about my guys to make it survive for 200 laps out there after I hit the wall.”
With his third-place finish, Williamson cut Sheppard’s points lead to 15 points with three races left in the 2024.
Max McLaughlin finished fourth in his Super DIRTcar Series return, and Jack Lehner earned his best Super DIRT Week finish, rounding out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (200 Laps): 1. 44-Stewart Friesen[1]; 2. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[9]; 3. 88-Mat Williamson[3]; 4. 8H-Max McLaughlin[12]; 5. 2-Jack Lehner[21]; 6. 12-Darren Smith[2]; 7. 66-Alex Yankowski[4]; 8. 35-Mike Mahaney[14]; 9. 9S-Matt Sheppard[7]; 10. 25-Erick Rudolph[22]; 11. 3-Justin Haers[13]; 12. 9-Marc Johnson[19]; 13. 49-Billy Dunn[27]; 14. 99L-Larry Wight[35]; 15. 1-Tyler Dippel[31]; 16. 4*-Anthony Perrego[11]; 17. 21A-Peter Britten[6]; 18. 91D-Billy Decker[8]; 19. 27J-Danny Johnson[24]; 20. 91-Felix Roy[5]; 21. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[15]; 22. 98-Rocky Warner[16]; 23. 27JR-Daniel Johnson[38]; 24. 15X-Justin Stone[37]; 25. Z1-David Schilling[23]; 26. 10C-Tanner Van Doren[32]; 27. 7Z-Zachary Payne[20]; 28. 58M-Marshall Hurd[29]; 29. (DNF) 26G-Ryan Godown[25]; 30. (DNF) 37S-Gary Lindberg[18]; 31. (DNF) 11-Matt Caprara[36]; 32. (DNF) 15-Todd Root[28]; 33. (DNF) 19-Tim Fuller[17]; 34. (DNF) 27P-Jeremy Pitts[30]; 35. (DNF) 28-Michael Trautschold[39]; 36. (DNF) 14-CG Morey[40]; 37. (DNF) 26R-Corey Cormier[26]; 38. (DNF) 07-Gary Tomkins[34]; 39. (DNF) 14J-Alan Johnson[41]; 40. (DNF) 70A-Alex Payne[10]; 41. (DNF) 20-Rick Laubach[33]