Given how busy his life has become over the past two years, Brenden "Butterbean" Queen has not had much time to return to his Late Model Stock Car roots.
The success Queen found in the discipline, especially with Lee Pulliam Performance, helped him earn an opportunity to win an ARCA Menards Series championship with Pinnacle Racing Group last year. Now Queen is full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with Kaulig Racing, where he sits 13th in points after 10 events.
Despite his hectic schedule, Queen has been patiently waiting to strap into a Late Model Stock more frequently. He will get that chance this summer when he teams back up with Pulliam's operation to run seven Late Model Stock events, including the first two legs of the Virginia Late Model Triple Crown at South Boston Speedway and Langley Speedway.
Queen wants to occupy some of his limited free time with the Virginia Triple Crown and Late Model Stocks in general, as he owes nearly every part of his ongoing journey to what he learned on short tracks.
RELATED: What to know for this year's Triple Crown [caption id="attachment_513059" align="alignleft" width="300"]“Late Model Stock racing will always be a huge part of me and my career,” Queen said. “Obviously, the priority is my job at Kaulig Racing, but it was cool to see the schedule and have some weeks I could fill in with some Late Model Stock racing. I only got to race one time last year in the late model world.
“It’ll be nice to run multiple races this year.”
Long before joining Pulliam, Queen was a staple in Late Model Stocks during the 2010s with his bright green, family-owned No. 03. Queen primarily competed at his home track in Langley but regularly branched out to other tracks around the southeast to prove he could hold his own with the elites of the discipline.
In 2014, Queen contested the entire Virginia Triple Crown -- South Boston’s Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200, Langley’s Hampton Heat and the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway -- for the first time. The outing was a difficult one for Queen; a ninth-place run in the Hampton Heat was his only finish inside the top 10.
As Queen continued to build the "Butterbean" brand, the Virginia Triple Crown grew along with him. Through a collaborative effort between NASCAR and FloSports, the three-race stretch now offers a total purse of $50,000, $20,000 of which goes to the champion.
Queen has been impressed with the effort that has gone into making the Virginia Triple Crown a cherished Late Model Stock tradition. There was already an element of prestige brewing during the event’s early years. Each track’s unique layout encouraged both precision and caution, as one bad race could potentially doom a title run.
With the increased purse and subsequent notoriety, Queen believes there is now more of an incentive for drivers to contest all three parts of the Virginia Triple Crown.
“If you go to [South Boston] and run good, it makes you go to Langley,” Queen said. “Everybody’s almost always going to Martinsville, but [the Virginia Triple Crown] gives you some reasons to go.
"In our Late Model Stock world, we know how big of a deal it is and how hard it is to put three races together at that level at three different tracks.”
Although Queen has never won the Virginia Triple Crown, he's found success in the event over the years, particularly in the second leg at Langley.
Queen won the Hampton Heat for the first time in 2020 with his own equipment, though that race was not part of the Virginia Triple Crown due to the COVID-19 pandemic canceling the other two legs. Teaming up with Pulliam brought Queen two more Hampton Heat victories in 2023 and 2024, tying him with C.E. Falk III for the most with three.
[caption id="attachment_513816" align="aligncenter" width="2560"]The accolades Queen has accumulated at Langley alone, including three consecutive track titles from 2020-22, always surprise him whenever he reflects upon them. He considers his maiden Hampton Heat conquest to be the catalyst that made him a perennial contender not only at Langley, but against any stout Late Model Stock field.
That confidence is why Queen is eager to return to his home track to pursue another Hampton Heat triumph after finishing third in what was his only Late Model Stock appearance across the 2025 season.
“I never thought I’d win one [Hampton Heat], let alone three,” Queen said. “They never got easier. If anything, they got harder to win. Looking back, it just happened so fast. Last year was awesome. We put up a fight and came up two spots short of that record-breaking three in a row and four total.
“We’ll give it another go this year and try to break the record of most wins in it. You never know; maybe this will start another streak [of going] back-to-back again.”
Before Queen gets to Langley for the Hampton Heat, he will first have to contest South Boston’s Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200. He's never won there.
What makes South Boston so challenging from Queen’s perspective is how dynamic the racing surface can be. Depending on the conditions, Queen said either the top or bottom groove can be dominant, which makes a strong qualifying effort imperative for the 200-lap feature given how hard it can be to pass.
Yet Queen feels he got closer to South Boston’s Victory Lane than ever with Pulliam, especially during the 2023 Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200, when he finished second after starting on pole. With no Truck Series obligations for this year’s opening leg of the Virginia Triple Crown, Queen is prepared to go all in with Pulliam so he can finally prevail at South Boston.
“We’ve been close but have never had it work our way,” Queen said. “[2023] really stings, because looking back on it, if I could have just done something different, I would have knocked that one off the list, but maybe I wouldn’t be coming back to try it again if I had already won it. This was one I circled as an off weekend, so I can have full attention on it.
“I’d love to knock that crown jewel off and narrow it down to what I haven’t won.”
[caption id="attachment_513061" align="alignnone" width="2560"]The Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 is the only leg of the Virginia Triple Crown when Queen does not have to worry about a Truck Series conflict. For the Hampton Heat, the Truck Series runs at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park the night before, allowing Queen to travel back and forth if there is no rain delay for the former.
The ValleyStar Credit Union 300 is where things get tricky. The Truck Series is at Kansas Speedway the same day as the 200-lap Late Model Stock feature at Martinsville. With a tentative 1 p.m. ET green flag for Kansas, Queen would have to hustle to make the main event in Martinsville on time.
Despite the potential logistical nightmare of such a venture, if Queen were to win one or even two legs of the Virginia Triple Crown beforehand, he would be willing to travel to Martinsville and pursue his first grandfather clock.
“I don’t know if they have the rule this year where you’re locked into Martinsville by winning [one of the first two legs],” Queen said. “If they do have that rule, I’d have to look how I could get to Martinsville after Kansas and start at the rear, I guess. Martinsville is the other of the two big crown jewels I haven’t won.
“To win the Late Model race there would be super special. You never know how things could work out.”
The Truck Series will remain Queen’s priority. He's spent most of his career building toward such a moment and does not plan to take his opportunity with Kaulig for granted. That's why he's thrilled to return to Late Model Stocks for two of the discipline’s biggest events after being mostly absent in 2025.
Given that his Late Model Stock appearances will be limited for as long as he is in NASCAR’s top three divisions, nothing would make Queen happier than to sweep the first two legs of the Virginia Triple Crown.