Port Royal Speedway
Lucas debut a challenge for talented Butterbean
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Brenden Queen (heathlawsonphotos.com)
PORT ROYAL, Pa. (Aug. 29) — Many in NASCAR circles would call Craftsman Truck Series driver Brenden Queen one of the more fun-loving personalities in stock car racing.
After all, he’s 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’s Rumble by the River, he was hardly a newcomer to short-track racing’s free-flowing, accessible culture.
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.
But Queen’s easygoing personality shouldn’t 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’s national-level drivers and teams, likening the Lucas Oil circuit to the discipline’s NASCAR Cup Series.
“I came up here and the goal was just to try to make the race,” Queen said. “These guys are top level. It’s 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.”
Queen didn’t 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’s first consolation before placing ninth in Saturday’s 15-car second consolation.
He also returned the car in one piece and stayed out of trouble, an accomplishment in itself.
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.
“This is my first time driving a Super and my first time at Port Royal,” Queen said. “It’s a learning curve for me, but I want to do it. I want to learn and accept the challenge.”
Queen isn’t 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’s ARCA Menards Series event on the mile dirt oval in DuQuoin, Ill.
“I’ve run those races at Dixieland and a couple of steel-block races, but I am a rookie,” Queen said through a laugh. “I don’t claim to be a dirt guy. I’m just trying to come and learn. I did win an ARCA race on dirt, though, at DuQuoin, so I’m glad about that.”
Queen’s 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’s rise from the local short-track ranks to a full-time Craftsman Truck Series ride with Kaulig Racing.
Queen’s 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.
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 ’25.
And while Staton owns Queen’s No. 03 Longhorn — which carries the same number and colorful scheme as his pavement Late Model — the Virginia car owner allows Queen to race it whenever his NASCAR schedule permits.
“They’ve pretty much taken me in like another kid and helped me get to where I am on the asphalt side,” Queen said. “John always raced dirt, and that’s where I got my dirt start, driving for him. But this is something he’s wanted to do his whole life — race at this level on the dirt side — and I was like, ‘Hey, I’d love to do it.’ And here we are.
“It’s awesome that they think enough of me to drive this thing,” Queen added. “I told John, ‘Man, you drive it.’ He said, ‘No, we’re going to let you drive it.’ ”
With only 25 Truck Series weekends compared to Cup’s 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’d rather spend those open weekends learning another discipline.
“As a race car driver, you don’t ever want to sit at home,” Queen said. “For me to get in a race car like this and race against the caliber of drivers we’re racing against, I think it’s only going to make me better.”
Queen is already searching for his next Dirt Late Model races. He’s eyeing Oct. 2-3’s Pittsburgher at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway and Dec. 3-5’s Gateway Dirt Nationals inside The Dome at America’s Center, along with select Blue Ridge Outlaw Late Model Series events closer to home.
“The Dome is a bucket-list event,” Queen said. “I know it’s rough, but we’re going to sell some Butterbean merchandise, hopefully, have a good time and learn.”
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.
“There are a lot of asphalt races where you do move around,” Queen said. “I 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.”
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’s NASCAR national series finales Nov. 6-8.
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.
“Hopefully, with Homestead coming up, this will get me tuned up for it,” Queen said. “I’ve never been there, so hopefully this will give me a little more confidence against the fence.”
That combo of fun and education is ultimately what Queen wants from his Dirt Late Model endeavor.
He returned Staton’s 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.
“This is a starting point, and we’re just going to try to get better from here,” Queen said. “I look forward to hopefully doing a lot more in the future.”
