Many in NASCAR circles would call Craftsman Truck Series driver Brenden Queen one of the more fun-loving personalities in stock car racing.<\/p>\n
After all, he\u2019s widely known by the nickname Butterbean. And though the 28-year-old made his Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series debut during Port Royal Speedway\u2019s Rumble by the River, he was hardly a newcomer to short-track racing\u2019s free-flowing, accessible culture.<\/p>\n
The Chesapeake, Va., driver cut his teeth in pavement Late Models, including on the CARS Tour, another old-school corner of the sport where a pit pass allows fans to mingle with drivers and teams with few barriers between them.<\/p>\n
But Queen\u2019s easygoing personality shouldn\u2019t be mistaken for a casual approach to his newest challenge. He arrived at the Port Royal half-mile with tremendous respect for Dirt Late Model racing\u2019s national-level drivers and teams, likening the Lucas Oil circuit to the discipline\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came up here and the goal was just to try to make the race,\u201d Queen said. \u201cThese guys are top level. It\u2019s like a Cup race for this style of racing. There are so many talented race car drivers here, along with the teams and the people working on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queen didn\u2019t accomplish that modest goal against a stout field of more than 50 entries, but he made incremental progress during his first weekend in a Super Late Model. He finished 14th among 17 drivers in Friday\u2019s first consolation before placing ninth in Saturday\u2019s 15-car second consolation.<\/p>\n
He also returned the car in one piece and stayed out of trouble, an accomplishment in itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Making a Super Late Model debut at Port Royal comes with a natural tradeoff as the sprawling half-mile provides ample room to race, but its speed magnifies the aerodynamic sensitivity and technical demands of an already unfamiliar car.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first time driving a Super and my first time at Port Royal,\u201d Queen said. \u201cIt\u2019s a learning curve for me, but I want to do it. I want to learn and accept the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queen isn\u2019t entirely new to dirt racing. In fact, he spent the 2022 season competing in the Crate Late Model division at Dixieland Speedway in Elizabeth City, N.C., winning five features and the track championship as a rookie. He also won last year\u2019s ARCA Menards Series event on the mile dirt oval in DuQuoin, Ill.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve run those races at Dixieland and a couple of steel-block races, but I am a rookie,\u201d Queen said through a laugh. \u201cI don\u2019t claim to be a dirt guy. I\u2019m just trying to come and learn. I did win an ARCA race on dirt, though, at DuQuoin, so I\u2019m glad about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queen\u2019s Super Late Model opportunity is the latest chapter in his relationship with John Staton, the Norfolk, Va., dirt racer and Best Repair Company owner who played a pivotal role in Queen\u2019s rise from the local short-track ranks to a full-time Craftsman Truck Series ride with Kaulig Racing.<\/p>\n
Queen\u2019s relationship with Staton began through their shared roots in Virginia short-track racing. Staton eventually gave Queen his first opportunity in a Dirt Late Model, putting him in the Late Model that Queen drove to success at Dixieland.<\/p>\n
When Queen lacked the resources to chase the CARS Tour full time, Staton helped connect him with four-time NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series champion Lee Pulliam. Their partnership with Lee Pulliam Performance ultimately produced the 2024 CARS Tour championship and helped position Queen for his dominant eight-victory ARCA championship season across 20 races in \u201925.<\/p>\n
And while Staton owns Queen\u2019s No. 03 Longhorn \u2014 which carries the same number and colorful scheme as his pavement Late Model \u2014 the Virginia car owner allows Queen to race it whenever his NASCAR schedule permits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve pretty much taken me in like another kid and helped me get to where I am on the asphalt side,\u201d Queen said. \u201cJohn always raced dirt, and that\u2019s where I got my dirt start, driving for him. But this is something he\u2019s wanted to do his whole life \u2014 race at this level on the dirt side \u2014 and I was like, \u2018Hey, I\u2019d love to do it.\u2019 And here we are.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome that they think enough of me to drive this thing,\u201d Queen added. \u201cI told John, \u2018Man, you drive it.\u2019 He said, \u2018No, we\u2019re going to let you drive it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
With only 25 Truck Series weekends compared to Cup\u2019s 38-event schedule, Queen has extra time during the season to sneak away to a Dirt Late Model race. Given the freedom to compete whenever his NASCAR obligations allow, he\u2019d rather spend those open weekends learning another discipline.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a race car driver, you don\u2019t ever want to sit at home,\u201d Queen said. \u201cFor me to get in a race car like this and race against the caliber of drivers we\u2019re racing against, I think it\u2019s only going to make me better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queen is already searching for his next Dirt Late Model races. He\u2019s eyeing Oct. 2-3\u2019s Pittsburgher at Pittsburgh\u2019s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway and Dec. 3-5\u2019s Gateway Dirt Nationals inside The Dome at America\u2019s Center, along with select Blue Ridge Outlaw Late Model Series events closer to home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Dome is a bucket-list event,\u201d Queen said. \u201cI know it\u2019s rough, but we\u2019re going to sell some Butterbean merchandise, hopefully, have a good time and learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having fun might be the immediate attraction, but Queen believes the lessons can follow him back to NASCAR. He quickly discovered that harnessing a Super Late Model demands many of the same fundamentals that separate drivers on pavement: throttle control, adaptability and the willingness to search for grip before someone else finds it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of asphalt races where you do move around,\u201d Queen said. \u201cI think dirt racing has helped me learn how to find the top before somebody else or vice versa. I think this will make you run the top better on the mile-and-a-halves, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queen could sense that crossover at Port Royal, whose sweeping layout and high speeds carried shades of a certain intermediate NASCAR oval: Homestead-Miami Speedway, host of this year\u2019s NASCAR national series finales Nov. 6-8.<\/p>\n
Homestead is a 1.5-mile paved oval while Port Royal measures only a half-mile, but both reward drivers willing to build momentum within inches of the outside wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, with Homestead coming up, this will get me tuned up for it,\u201d Queen said. \u201cI\u2019ve never been there, so hopefully this will give me a little more confidence against the fence.\u201d<\/p>\n
That combo of fun and education is ultimately what Queen wants from his Dirt Late Model endeavor.<\/p>\n
He returned Staton\u2019s new Longhorn intact, became more acquainted with the foreign discipline and gathered lessons that could eventually serve him against the wall at Homestead or elsewhere in NASCAR. For a debut weekend, that represented progress even without making out of the B-main.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a starting point, and we\u2019re just going to try to get better from here,\u201d Queen said. \u201cI look forward to hopefully doing a lot more in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many in NASCAR circles would call Craftsman Truck Series driver Brenden Queen one of the more fun-loving personalities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-335705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}