Bell to fill in for injured Friesen at Watkins Glen Truck race

With Stewart Friesen out indefinitely after suffering broken bones in a crash during a Super DIRTcar Series feature at Canada’s Autodrome Drummond last Monday, NASCAR Cup Series star Christopher Bell will take his place next Friday at Watkins Glen International.

Friesen suffered a suffered an open-book pelvic fracture and right leg fracture when his Big Block Modified flipped and was subsequently hit at speed by in Turn 3 of the 0.4-mile dirt oval. He was transferred to a New York hospital and underwent several surgeries through the week as his road to recovery begins.

While Friesen will be out of the truck for an amount of time yet to be determined, his Halmar Friesen Racing team is locked into the playoffs for the Craftsman Truck Series owners’ championship courtesy of a June win at Michigan International Speedway. The team intends to continue battling for that title and in order to do so, it needs to keep competing at each race. For the first event since Friesen’s injury, it will do so with Bell.

“I was honored to receive the call to run this truck for Stewart, a fellow dirt race and Toyota teammate, in Watkins Glen,” said Bell (pictured above). “I’ve spent time with the team these past few days and we are working hard to continue the great season Stewart has had and deliver a great finish for him and his partners.”

Bell is one of the Next Gen era’s biggest stars in Cup, having made two Championship 4 appearances and earned 11 victories since the car’s arrival in 2022. The Oklahoman is also a former Truck Series champion, securing the title in his second and final full-time Truck campaign with Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2017.

Bell has only made four Truck starts since he stepped up to the Xfinity Series in 2018. His most recent appearance came in March 2024, when Bell finished fifth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a one-off run for TRICON Garage. He has seven Truck Series wins in 57 career starts.

Halmar Friesen Racing will make driver announcements for future races at a later date.