NASCAR confirmed that it confiscated Stewart Friesen’s primary No. 52 Chevrolet Thursday at Kentucky Speedway after it found an issue with the truck’s firewall in inspection before the series’ first practice.
Friesen will have to start from the rear for tonight’s race due to going to a backup truck. Any penalties will be announced next week.
Friesen was allowed to retrieve his safety and comfort equipment before the truck was confiscated.
Friesen competes for Halmar Friesen Racing, which issued the following statement.
“The team at HFR is not yet sure of the exact reason for confiscation, our understanding is that there was something about the firewall that prompted it. At this time, the truck remains in lockup. It is a brand new truck and it had yet to race. Stewart Friesen and the crew are confident in our backup truck and look forward to hitting the track today at Kentucky Speedway.”
Friesen was seventh fastest in the first practice session and 13th fastest in final practice with his backup truck.
“It seems really weird this year, we really haven’t had many qualifying runs that have made a difference,” Friesen told FS1. “We’ve changed motors and had to go to backup trucks and all sorts of stuff lately. This is a great race car, we ran this at Chicago a couple of weeks ago (where he finished third). It was fast at Texas a couple of weeks before that. ... Hats off to all my guys for busting their butts the last couple of weeks, been a long, hard stretch. They’ve been putting in probably more hours than they need to in the race shop. Just really, really appreciate that.”
Friesen enters today’s race third in points after earning seven top fives and 8 top 10s in the first 12 races of the season.
Firewall issue on the Friesen truck, according to NASCAR. No one ejected from the team. Penalties TBD — possibly not announced until next week — pending further discussion among NASCAR officials. The truck sits outside the #NASCAR hauler. pic.twitter.com/cWfjjQFsc0
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) July 11, 2019