KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Stewart Friesen may not have won Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway, but he certainly put on a show in trying to do so.

Friesen and his No. 52 Halmar International Chevrolet Silverado were a force for much of the night, leading six laps in the 37 Kind Days 250 and at one point overhauling polesitter and race-long dominator Noah Gragson for the race lead during the second stage.

However, Friesen’s strong run hit a speed bump when the caution flag flew for a Bo Lemastus spin with 62 to go, as his shifter knob broke off under caution and led to ignition issues while Friesen was trying to deal with the knob problem.

The combined effect was that Friesen did not maintain pace under yellow, dropping from the lead to seventh as Gragson reinherited a lead that he’d ultimately convert into the victory by race’s end.

It wasn’t without Friesen’s best challenge, though. The Canadian shot from seventh to second on the next restart and then used a two-tire pit call on his final stop with 29 laps left to leapfrog both Gragson and Kyle Busch, ending up locked in a torrid fight with Busch for the effective race lead coming into the final 25 circuits.

Friesen and Busch actually made contact exiting turn four at one point, with Friesen coming across the nose of Busch’s truck and forcing it into the frontstretch grass in an effort to maintain position.

Busch later cleared Friesen before Gragson came hauling past both of them on four fresh tires with 11 to go, relegating Friesen to third at the checkered flag but still leaving him with a big grin after the race.

“That was fun,” Friesen said. “I need to apologize to Kyle, I didn’t mean to run him in the grass like that … but I know if you let those guys eat you up, they’ll eat you up every week. I was just trying my hardest to keep them behind me there and try to get the win.

“The shifter knob broke off the handle under caution and I was trying to deal with that. I was hoping it wasn’t going to roll under the gas pedal or anything like that … then I was trying to save fuel by cycling the motor and it wouldn’t re-fire,” Friesen added. “I had to kill the power and cycle it back again. We lost some spots back there and we battled back. It was a weird deal, but we had a good run tonight.”

Friesen admitted he didn’t know that there were fresher tires coming from behind in the closing laps.

“I thought that (Kyle and I) were going to be the race for the win. I didn’t realize the (No.) 18 (Gragson) got four tires at the end. He was just a rocket ship after that,” admitted Friesen. “I’m super proud of our Halmar team, though. (Owner) Chris Larson has done so much for me at this level. I never dreamed I would be racing these guys and competing for wins.”

Friesen has finished no worse than sixth on 1.5-mile race tracks so far this season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, improving his result each time out.

That gives both he and his team confidence heading into Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway next week.

“We’ll take this truck and turn it around for Charlotte next weekend, which I’m really excited about,” said Friesen. “We just want to keep this roll going, man. I would love to win one of these things, but I’ll tell you what – I’m just happy to be here, too.”