Friesen Doubles Down At Utica-Rome

VERNON, N.Y. — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Stewart Friesen did double duty Thursday night at Utica-Rome Speedway and came home with a pair of victories.

Making a rare sprint car start, wheeling Glenn Styres No. 0f machine, Friesen started on the pole and dominated the 25-lap Empire Super Sprints feature that kicked off Central New York Speedweek for the winged 360 sprint car series.

Friesen was able to continue pulling away from the rest of the field and crossed under the checkers with over a five-second lead.

“That was a blast, big thanks to Glenn and the whole GSR crew, they’re building these cars and motors in house now, and they were great” said Friesen. “I didn’t fire off real good on the bottom on restarts. I would overshoot turn one and then Jordan would get me.”

“The track was great though, even with as slick as it was we could race all over it.”

Friesen led Jordan Poirier to the checkered flag with Danny Varin, Billy VanInwegen Jr. and Davie Franek completing the top five.

“I tried to start slow, I knew if I started slow I could have the momentum on the top side,” said Poirier. “I knew if he got out in front of me, it was going to be tough to pass him.”

Next Friesen climbed into his familiar No. 44 modified and outraced Tim Fuller to grab the $4,000 victory.

The finish:

Empire Super Sprints (25 Laps): 1. 0F-Stewart Friesen[1]; 2. 28-Jordan Poirier[2]; 3. #01-Danny Varin[4]; 4. 10V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[3]; 5. 28F-Davie Franek[11]; 6. 98-Joe Trenca[10]; 7. #79-Jordan Thomas[8]; 8. 87-Jason Barney[5]; 9. 4P-Chase Moran[9]; 10. 53-Shawn Donath[13]; 11. #17-Sammy Reakes IV[16]; 12. 21T-Alex Therrien[21]; 13. 0-Glenn Styres[19]; 14. #89-Robbie Stillwaggon[18]; 15. #5H-Chris Hile[25]; 16. 17J-Kyle Smith[20]; 17. 36-Logan Crisafulli[15]; 18. 13T-Trevor Years[26]; 19. 10-Kelly Hebing[14]; 20. 3-Parker Evans[23]; 21. #7NY-Matt Farnham[12]; 22. 90-Matt Tanner[22]; 23. 21-Jonathan Preston[7]; 24. #41-Dalton Rombough[6]; 25. #9-Josh Pieniazek[17]; 26. 13-Keith Granholm[24]