TRUCKS: Dystany Spurlock shows steady improvement at Richmond, where Stewart Friesen finishes last after late crash
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
The battered right-front corner of Friesen’s #52 at Richmond. (PHOTO: Stewart Friesen, @StewartFriesen)
Stewart Friesen picked up the 5th last-place finish of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career in Saturday’s Black’s Tire 250 Presented by BTS Rewards at the Richmond Raceway when his #52 Halmar International Toyota crashed after he completed 213 of 250 laps.
The finish, which came in Friesen’s 217th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Truck Series race since July 25, 2025 at IRP, 26 races ago. In the Truck Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 10th for the #52, the 61st for Toyota, and the 212th from a crash. Across NASCAR’s top three series starts, it was the 64th for the #52, the 442nd for Toyota, and the 1,471st from a crash.
When Friesen was last featured here, he’d hours earlier celebrated a hard-fought 3rd-place finish at IRP, which came in both his 200th series start and on his 42nd birthday. But the run was undone by a disqualification when his Toyota failed post-race front height measurements. Three days later, while competing in a Super DIRTcar Series race at Autodrome Drummond, Friesen experienced a terrifying accident that left him with a fractured pelvis and right leg, cutting short his season. He was ultimately relieved by Kaden Honeycutt, who parlayed Friesen’s win at Michigan to a Championship Four bid at Phoenix, then his current ride in place of Corey Heim at TRICON Garage.
Friesen healed in time to start the 2026 season in his familiar #52, which is now one of two Halmar Friesen Racing entries now that their former part-time #62 entry runs full-time. He started the year 10th in the opener in Daytona, took a strong 4th in Rockingham, then 6th in Nashville. Following a power steering issue in San Diego, he rebounded with a streak of three consecutive top-ten finishes at Lime Rock Park, North Wilkesboro, and his return to IRP, vaulting him back into 10th in points. He’s also been as busy as ever on the dirt racing circuit, having just recently battled his wife Jessica to the finish in a race at Fonda Speedway, which Jessica won.
Friesen arrived in Richmond as one of 39 drivers entered for 36 available starting spots. In opening practice, he ranked just 33rd with a speed of 24.167 seconds (111.723mph). His qualifying metric gave him a late draw of 32nd, from which he jumped to 9th on the starting grid with a lap of 23.337 seconds (115.696mph). The three teams sent home were Kasey Kleyn in the #27 Thaemert Farms Chevrolet, Caleb Costner returning to the driver’s seat of his #93 Rodney Cole Insurance Agency / Auto-Owners Insurance Chevrolet, and a returning Justin S. Carroll in the #90 Toyota.
Securing the 36th and final starting spot was Dystany Spurlock, who returned to the Truck Series for the first time since Dover, where an early accident in her series debut left her in last place. This time around, Spurlock drove for Team Reaume in the #2 Foxxtecca Ford, though Dover team owner Carl Long joined the effort and was on the team radio on race day. That day moved from Friday night to Saturday morning following persistent rain and lightning that continued overnight.
With no drivers sent to the rear for pre-race penalties, Spurlock remained in the 36th spot as the green flag dropped. She crossed the stripe 4.408 seconds back of the leader, about four-tenths back of Spencer Boyd in the #76 A Child’s Wish Foundation Chevrolet. On the opening lap, Spurlock made her way past Boyd, putting the #76 to the 36th spot at the start of Lap 2, but Boyd made his way past her again by the start of Lap 3, when she was now 8.298 seconds back of the lead. Ahead of Spurlock now was 35th-place Elliott Sadler, who was making his first Truck Series start since 2011 in Kaulig RAM Racing’s “all-star” #25 RAM. By Lap 6, the gap from Sadler back to Spurlock grew to two full seconds, then more than five on Lap 11.
During this run, Spurlock’s crew told her to be smoother while exiting the corner, and to keep her left-front hugging the yellow line in the corners. They also suggested she be more aggressive at corner entry. Spurlock responded that her truck was loose on both entry and exit, to which the team suggested a wider arc at corner entry, and to get out of the throttle more slowly. Ahead of her, Sadler dropped Boyd back to 35th again on Lap 15. Spurlock was ow 24.503 seconds back of the lead, her truck squarely in the sights of leader Kaden Honeycutt, who on Lap 16 made hers the first truck off the lead lap. On Lap 18, team owner Josh Reaume told Spurlock to get deeper into the corners, and Spurlock asked for permission to adjust the brake bias, which she was granted. By Lap 20, her truck was “loose all the way around,” though for now the only truck off the lead lap, as 35th-place Boyd was still 19.393 seconds back of the lead on Lap 21.
On Lap 24, NASCAR relayed their first message to Spurlock to pick up her speed. But on Lap 26, Reaume called for her to pit next time by for four tires and gas. They crew also made a massive adjustment, bringing the track bar down five rounds on the right side. She returned to the track on Lap 30, now four laps down, and on Lap 31, 35th-place Boyd was then lapped, taking away the Lucky Dog. Again, Spurlock was told to attack the corners harder and roll the center, and she looked to be taking the advice. Her spotter noted the truck looked better the last two laps. Spurlock responded that the truck was no longer loose on entry. NASCAR did not hand down another minimum speed warning. Instead, she followed in the tire tracks of Leland Honeyman, Jr., a last-minute substitution in the #62 Halmar Infrastructure Development Toyota due to a scheduling conflict for Cup regular Christopher Bell. She still lost a fifth lap on Lap 57, and on Lap 63, the driver reported her brakes felt like they were “hopping” when she pressed the pedal. She continued to provide helpful feedback on Lap 72, when the caution fell to end Stage 1, elaborating on her brake issue. The team responded by telling her to use the patch at Turn 1 as a guide for proper corner entry. On Lap 76, she incurred a penalty for an uncontrolled tire on pit road, dropping her to the tail end of the field. Reaume expressed frustration over this, pointing out that three crew members could have caught the tire. For the Lap 81 restart, she was encouraged to follow in the tire tracks of another penalized driver, Mason Massey, whose #20 Mongoose Power Solutions Chevrolet showed good pace early. They told her if she could keep up with Massey, she’d be running a good pace.
On Lap 84, Spurlock reported her brakes were now chattering. Ahead of her, teammate Frankie Muniz dropped to 35th in the #33 MRCOOL / Prima Flyers Ford, but Muniz then clawed his way past Sadler on Lap 88. That time by, Ty Majeski dropped off the pace on the backstretch for a flat left-front tire, a likely result of Majeski’s aggressive block on Corey Heim entering Turn 1 a few laps earlier. Majeski returned to the track on Lap 91 showing two laps down in the 35th spot, three laps ahead of Spurlock, with all 36 trucks still running. On Lap 95, Spurlock lost a sixth lap to the leaders, just her second lap lost since her unscheduled stop in Stage 1. She noted that her truck couldn’t drive into the corner as those on the lead lap, and remained in the middle lane as faster traffic moved past. She again found a place in line behind Massey, who she again followed on Lap 111.
On Lap 116, as Majeski began his long climb through the field en route to a 19th-place finish, Spurlock lost a seventh lap, then an eighth on Lap 137. Near the end of Stage 2, she was trapped in the high lane as the field started to stack up three-wide below her, but she reached the stage-ending caution on Lap 141. Under the yellow, she continued to elaborate on the brake issue, saying her truck would always push up the track whenever she hit the pedal, forcing her to get off the gas. “Whenever I try to do what they’re doing,” she said, “it does not work.” By now, the team wondered if the splitter on her truck was hitting the track, and now looked into putting in a packer to lift the nose of her Ford. She pitted on Lap 146 without losing another lap and took the next restart on Lap 151.
The adjustments appeared to help. On Lap 157, Spurlock’s spotter told her that her last lap was within three-tenths of 35th-place Sadler’s. Still, she lost a ninth lap on Lap 170, when Dawson Sutton took over the 35th spot in his #26 Rackley Roofing Chevrolet. The next time by, she was running the high lane as 5th-place Chandler Smith made it past in the low lane. By Lap 186, Sutton and the next three trucks ahead of Spurlock were each three laps down to a dominant Honeycutt, soon to be joined by 31st-place Sadler and 30th-place Timmy Hill in the #56 Coble Enterprises Toyota. On Lap 196, Spurlock lost her tenth lap, then on Lap 198 the 35th spot was held by Kris Wright whose green-flag stop dropped him four laps down in the #81 F.N.B. Corporation / iHeartRadio Chevrolet. On Lap 203, as Boyd retook the 35th spot after his stop dropped him a fifth lap down, Spurlock was also called to pit road, leaving her 11 laps down when she returned. She remained 11 laps down on Lap 216, when her spotter said, ”Got one in the wall up top – caution’s out.”
That time by, Friesen was running in the 18th spot when he lost control in Turns 1 and 2, then slammed the wall with the right-rear and right-front of his Toyota. He made it to pit road, where the crew applied a patch of black tape to the damaged corner, but on Lap 218, they radioed, “All right, we’re done.” By the time Friesen was four laps down, he’d plummeted to 34th, putting him one lap ahead of 35th-place Boyd and six ahead of 36th-place Spurlock. On Lap 220, Friesen’s team commiserated over their misfortune. “Should have pitted earlier,” someone said. “But the lap times were telling me not to.” Friesen fell to 35th by Lap 221, and shortly after the restart, Spurlock dropped Friesen to last place on Lap 225. She again fell 11 laps down with just 14 to go, when Honeycutt got under her at the stripe, and she finished in 35th.
“That’s the longest race you’ve ran, how do you feel?” Spurlock’s crew asked her. “I’m fine physically,” she said cheerfully, then remarked at Honeycutt’s victory celebration on the track. Boyd, Hill, and Sadler completed the Bottom Five with Friesen as the race’s only DNF. Despite the early exit and rescheduled race, Friesen still made it back out to Fonda, where late Saturday, he climbed from 22nd to 4th and clinched the 2026 Amsterdam Truck Centers Modified Championship.
Spire’s Van Gisbergen and McKee impress at Richmond
Saturday’s race marked the first time Shane Van Gisbergen earned a pole position in a NASCAR oval track race, this time piloting Spire Motorsports’ #7 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. The road course expert led two laps, finished 2nd and 5th in the stages, and took home a 4th-place finish, following-up on his breakthrough weekend at North Wilkesboro just last month. Also impressive was one of his teammates, ARCA upstart Tristan McKee, who as the second-youngest driver to start a Truck Series race earned a sterling 8th-place finish in his series debut piloting the #77 Workforce Chevrolet. At the time of this race, McKee was just five days older than record holder Casey Atwood, whose first start came at 16 years and six days.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #52 in a Truck Series race at Richmond.
*The 213 laps completed by Friesen are the second-most by a Truck Series last-place finisher at Richmond, trailing only the 239 laps turned by Josh Reaume in 2023 (LINK). Curiously, that was the same lap count as 35th-place Spurlock in Reaume’s truck on Saturday.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
36) #52-Stewart Friesen / 213 laps / crash
35) #2-Dystany Spurlock / 239 laps / running
34) #76-Spencer Boyd / 244 laps / running
33) #56-Timmy Hill / 246 laps / running
32) #25-Elliott Sadler / 246 laps / running
2026 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Niece Motorsports, Team Reaume (4)
2nd) Halmar Friesen Racing, ThorSport Racing (2)
3rd) Front Row Motorsports, Kaulig RAM Racing, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Rackley-W.A.R. (1)
2026 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford (8)
2nd) Chevrolet (6)
3rd) Toyota (2)
4th) RAM (1)
2026 LASTCAR TRUCK SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
