Chesapeake native Brenden “Butterbean” Queen can savor a successful debut in the Craftsman Truck Series, having finished fourth in a rain-delayed race that spanned Saturday and Sunday at North Wilkesboro Speedway as part of the weekend of the NASCAR All-Star Race.
Queen, 26, drove his No. 1 Toyota from behind after being penalized for speeding on pit road. He was a fan favorite at a 0.625-mile track where he won a CARS Tour race last year.
He commented on being the last Late Model star to debut in a NASCAR national series, as Josh Berry, Carson Kvapil and Bubba Pollard did in the Xfinity Series.
“It’s just special, man. It just shows how important late model stock car racing is and how important the CARS Tour is,” Queen said on NASCAR.com. “Just the support around our series, they want to see these guys that they’ve seen on the short tracks have these opportunities to go toe-to-toe with the big names. So I can’t believe it. I won here last year, so I think that’s where I won over a lot of the Wilkesboro crowd, and a lot of people came out and saw me tonight. “I am very blessed.”
There was no qualifying due to rain on Saturday, so Queen started 26th out of the 36 drivers. When a downpour forced him to stop Saturday after 81 of 250 laps, he had improved to 12th place.
On Sunday morning he reached seventh position before suffering a penalty on lap 119.
“He screwed us,” he radioed to his Tricon Garage team, according to NASCAR.com. “I’m sorry, I’ll make it up to you.”
He did, moving into the top 10 on lap 167. “Fastest truck on the track right now,” his team told him, just before cracking the top five with 57 laps remaining.
Series points leader Christian Eckes drove his No. 19 Chevrolet into the side of Queen in retaliation on the backstretch after an aggressive move in Turns 1 and 2. “Oh, yeah. Stick that finger in your tail, buddy,” Queen said on radio number one after Eckes showed his displeasure, according to NASCAR.com.
“I didn’t feel like I had done anything wrong,” Queen later said. “We were running hard, I got loose under him and didn’t wreck him. He did more damage down the stretch than I did around the turn.”
Queen was fifth on the final restart with 32 laps remaining and thanked his team for the opportunity. He enjoyed much applause from fans.
“I mean, I’m a Late Model guy too, so to me, it’s awesome,” No. 1 crew chief Seth Smith told NASCAR.com. “The boy has an incredible following, and a lot of that has to do with his attitude and the work he does. He really appreciates any opportunity he has to do anything, so he’s a very humble kid and just great to have the fan support that he has. Like I said, I think a lot of that is because of how humble he is.”
Queen, a former Langley Speedway champion, said he will return to the CARS Tour schedule but hopes for more Truck Series races.
“Everyone on this 1 team is special and I look forward to being here with them next year,” he told NASCAR.com.
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