Jessica Friesen making Truck return for Bristol Dirt

Since the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series added two dirt races in 2021, Jessica Friesen has entered both at Bristol Motor Speedway and Knoxville Raceway, driving the #62 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for Halmar Friesen Racing. This will continue in 2023 as she hopes to make Saturday’s Bristol Dirt Race with sponsorship from Aim Autism.

Her husband Stewart Friesen has been a Truck Series regular since 2016 and is coming off back-to-back sixth-place points finishes; five races into the 2023 season, he is currently thirteenth in points with a best finish of third at Texas on Saturday. The Friesens have competed against each other on dirt, though Stewart is mainly a modified car racer while Jessica mostly runs sprint cars.

Friesen will hope to turn her luck around at Bristol as she missed the 2021 and 2022 editions, the former due to the heat races being rained out while she finished eighth of nine in her heat at the latter. While she has yet to qualify at Bristol, she raced both editions at the other Truck dirt event at Knoxville, finishing twenty-sixth in 2021. The 2022 Knoxville race ended in bizarre fashion when Friesen hit a berm along the apron and did a barrel roll before landing on her wheels.

While Stewart’s #52 is the only full-time truck for HFR, the #62 has only been used on occasion since its introduction for Jessica in 2021. She, Todd Bodine, and Layne Riggs entered a combined eleven races in 2022 with two top tens and a best run of seventh at IRP with Riggs. Bristol will be the #62’s first race of 2023.