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By Ronald Young Myracenews
Photo: Michael Jaworecki/Myracenews
After a couple weeks off the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks get back in action this Friday night at Richmond Raceway for the running of the Black’s Tire 250. The trucks have two races left before their chase for the championship startsnext month at Bristol.
One driver outside the top-10 cut line to make the chase looking forward to Richmond is Chesapeake VA native Brenden Queen who currently sits 14th in points driving in his rookie season for the Ram truck team.
Overall the RAM program has struggled in their 1st year of competition to find speed and handling with trucks that were purchased from other teams and fitted with RAM bodies in the offseason. However, the team plans to have updated equipment at Richmond in search of improved performance
“We’ve got two races (till the playoffs) and we need to run up front to get stage points”, Queen said during a recent test session at Martinsville Speedway. I don’t wish bad luck on anybody but they are going to have some while we are getting some points for us to sneak our way in.”
“If it’s meant to be, it will happen,” Queen stated about his playoff chances. If not we are still chasing rookie of the year, a truck win and bunch of good finishes to end the season.”
Complicating the task for “Butterbean” is the fact he has never started a race at the ¾ mile-oval in the Commonwealth but says he has many laps on iRacing.
“Always been one of my best tracks and I feel like it is in my wheelhouse. Low grip kind of D-shaped Myrtle Beach style feel with more banking. I’m excited to be in front of the home crowd and I know ‘Bean Nation’s’ is going to show up and we’re going to try and give them something to cheer for.”
Before catching the eye of the NASCAR world a couple years ago at North Wilkesboro in his first truck start. Queen learned his craft on the eastern Virginia/North Carolina short tracks on both dirt and asphalt. He competed in go-karts and legends cars before switching to pavement Late Model racing.
Queen captured the Late Model title at Langley Speedway in Hampton for three straight years(2020-2022) under the mentorship of 7- time Langley champion Phil Warren and in the process became a fan favorite sporting a ‘mullet’ hair style.
Queen was able to move up to the ZMAX Cars Tour in 2023 where he drove for another Late Model standout Lee Pulliam. The pair quickly won races, four total on the season, and contended for the championship before finishing 2nd in the standings behind two-time O’Reilly winner Carson Kvapil.
Queen came back in 2024 to capture the Cars Tour title with Pulliam. He also made his Truck series debut with TriCon Garage and scored a best finish of 4th at North Wilkesboro.
Queen moved on to the ARCA series in 2025 racing full- time with Pinnacle Racing Group. Queen won right away in Daytona and captured a total of 8 wins on the season en route to the title.
As the summer winds down in 2026 Queen talked about how his life has changed in the last year and how much becoming a part of the RAM truck program means to him.
“I’m a paid race car driver now and this is my job. Thankful to Matt Kaulig(team owner) and Chris Rice(team CEO) and everyone at RAM for hiring me and making me one of the guys a part of this deal.”
Queen added that his days away from the track are filled with physical work outs, film study, driver appearances and team meetings. Back in 2022 Butterbean” was working at the shipyard and trying to get enough local sponsorship to keep his race career on the track.
“My life is definitely different. I mean to ‘get to do what you love’. You get to grow the fan base and travel all over the world. It’s really cool.”
In addition to his Truck schedule, Queen still competes at his local tracks and is often asked to share advice by his competitors who want to climb the racing ladder.
“I would say enjoy the moment. Soak it in and don’t get caught worrying about what is next because you will do that and you will miss out on enjoying what is in front of you and those are some really good days to enjoy.”
“Don’t lose sight of the goal and dream but don’t get caught up in ‘Man I’ve got to make it tomorrow’. Everyone’s timeline is different. My timeline was different with my age. So it can happen.”
