Stewart Friesen steals spotlight from “Championship Night” at Albany-Saratoga Speedway

Stewart Friesen Steals Spotlight from “Championship Night” at Albany-Saratoga Speedway

Story By: Tom Boogie /Albany Saratoga Media

Photo By: Dave Dalesandro /MSI Photo

MALTA, NY – Leave it to Stewart Friesen to steal the spotlight from “Championship Night” at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
Friesen, left with a Friday night with nothing to do because his primary circuit, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, is on a two-week hiatus, pulled into the Malta track and won the 53-lap modified feature that drew the curtain on the 2018 points season.
Had it been a regular Friday night, Friesen probably would have stayed home with his family, but because it was extra distance and paid $4,000 to win (and included $500 in bonus money from Bart Contracting), he figured it was worth the shot to make the short haul from his Sprakers home.
“We weren’t planning on coming here,” said Friesen, who also won the Super DIRT Series race at the Malta track earlier this season. “Since the beginning of August, we’ve been going week to week, and this came up, so we figured we’d support it.”
Friesen, who started 13th, was flying from the start, and was in the top five after just 15 laps.
Brett Hearn brought out the yellow on lap 19 when something broke in the rear end of his car, putting him out for the night and shortly after the restart, Friesen had the lead. He dominated the rest of the feature, run under green flag conditions, beating runner-up Ken Tremont Jr. by over five seconds.
“We were good all night,” Friesen understated. “We’ve been working on some different things on this DKM chassis all year, and tonight, we used a different package, and it really worked.”
Even though Hearn, who officially finished 24th, ended his night in the pits, he won his eighth modified track championship. When Hearn dropped out of the feature, which offered double points, Marc Johnson needed to finish seventh to wrestle the crown away from Hearn, but Johnson crossed the finish line 10th. That allowed Hearn to finish with a 10-point margin of victory
The battle for the sportsman championship went right down to the wire. Connor Cleveland, who began the night second in points, easily won the 40-lap feature, which paid $1,000 to win, and got the maximum in points. But points leader Tim Hartman Jr. crossed the finish line fourth, which was just enough to give him his first track championship.
Hartman and his father became the first father-son team to win titles at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. Tim Hartman Sr. is a three-time sportsman champion.
The pro stocks ran Twin 15-lap features, with Norm Loubier and John Coonradt coming away with the victories. But Kenny Martin Jr. finished fourth in the first feature and sixth in the second to earn his second straight track championship, holding off Jason Corbin in the battle for the title.
The street stocks ran a special 30-lap Classic Muscle Parts Spectacular, which paid $1,000 to win, and Al Relyea, the defending champion in the division, walked off with the top prize, but it didn’t come easy.
Jimmy Duncan started on the pole and led until lap 27, when he and David Cook, who were battling for the lead, both drifted high in the second turn, allowing Relyea, who had been running third, to take the lead. Duncan fought back and was challenging Relyea on lap 29, but Duncan slid into the infield, giving Relyea enough of a cushion to outrun Cook.
Jared LeClair recorded his first career win in the limited sportsman win. He and Scott Bennett put on a side-by-side duel in the early laps of the 20-lap feature, but when Bennett drifted high in the fourth turn on lap 10, LeClair was alone at the head of the field.
Miohael Wagner Fitzgerald made it a two-car battle late in the race, and was right on LeClair’s bumper when the leader got into lapped traffic, but LeClair held on for the win.
Jason Lang used a late restart to win the four-cylinder feature. Robert Garney was the first single cam car across the finish line.
MODIFIEDS (53 laps): Stewart Friesen, Ken Tremont Jr., Bobby Hackel IV, Kris Vernold, Ronnie Johnson, Matt DeLorenzo, Jack Lehner, Jim Nagle, Jessey Mueller, Marc Johnson, Elmo Reckner, Brian Gleason, Matt Pupello, Keith Flach, Bodie Bellinger, Neil Stratton, Ray Hoard, Hector Stratton, Kyle Armstrong, CG Morey, Lou Torres, Jackie Brown, Matt Depew, Brett Hearn, Demetrios Drellos, Rich Ronca, Bobby Hackel III, Don Ronca.
SPORTSMAN (40 laps): Connor Cleveland, Jason Gray, Daryl Nutting, Tim Hartman Jr., Jeremy Pitts, Brian Calabrese, Scott Duell, Nick Lussier, Joey Scarborough, Mike Coffey Jr., Mike Ostrander, Chris Johnson, Chad Edwards, Andrew Buff, Kale Groff, Jon Miller, Chris Ronca, Jim Osgood, John Stowell, Fred Proctor, Josh Neal, Joe Orlando, Pat Jones, Derek Bornt, Butch Wilcox, Kevin Chaffee, Elliott Lussier, Jason Rheome, Jesse Edwards, Robert Bublak Jr.
PRO STOCKS (first feature): Norm Loubier, Jason Corbin, Kim Duell, Kenny Martin, Josh Coonradt, Chuck Dumblewski, Dan Older, Dan Madigan, Darrell Older, Chris Wemple, Brandon Gray, Scott Towslee, Matt Roberts, Nick Arnold, Jimmy Eaton, Luke Horning, Brandon Emigh.
PRO STOCKS (second feature): Josh Coonradt, Dan Older, Chuck Dumblewski, Brandon Emigh, Kim Duell, Kenny Martin, Jason Corbin, Luke Horning, Dean Charbonneau, Norm Loubier, Ed Thompson, Chris Wemple, Brandon Gray, Dan Madigan, Nick Arnold, Scott Towslee, Matt Roberts, Darrell Older, Yates Lansing, Mike Baker, Alicia Hughes.
LIMITED SPORTSMAN: Jerard LeClair, Michael Wagner Fitzgerald, Paolo Pascarella, Justin Buff, David Boisclair, Josh Rozelle, Scott Bennett, Dylan Bokus, Jeff Jenkins, Emily Quinn, Bryan Jones Jr., Stephen Kneer, Derrick McGrew Jr., Thomas Van Vorst Sr., Steve Burch, Bryant Moore, Brandon Daley, Bob Schmidt, Lenny Billings.
STREET STOCKS: Al Relyea, David Cook, John Filarecki, Jesse Murphy, Damon Anderson, Zach Seyerlein, Randy Miller, Justin Taylor, Jordan Casper, John Hayes, Jake Currier, Phil Arnold, Pete Vila, Dustin Stevenson, Jimmy Duncan, Dom Denue, Chase Aussicker, Jeff Meltz Jr., DJ Brundige, Steve Cosselman, Mark Burch, Scott Lawrence, Adam Tranka.