This study investigates the fretting fatigue cracking process for wires made of aluminum alloy through elastic and elastoplastic simulations of former tests where both crack arrest and crack growth until failure were observed. A three-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA), incorporating 3D cracks within the contact, is conducted to replicate the experiments in the conditions of these former results. The present study demonstrates that an elastic assumption fails to capture the threshold crack extension, which would result in systematically underestimated lengths for crack arrest. When considering elastoplastic behavior of the aluminum strands, instead of elastic behavior, the SIF values evolve consistently with experimental observations. By this way, it is now possible to carry out a sounded FEA so as to account for friction in the crack lips in the presence of plasticity. First, this model clarifies the role of friction in crack arrest. Secondly, a reverse analysis is proposed to assess the associated coefficient of friction between crack lips, yielding a value consistent with measurements obtained from gross slip fretting experiments