Brenden “Butterbean” Queen’s journey into the ARCA Menards Series is a testament to perseverance and passion. Growing up in Chesapeake, Virginia, Queen honed his skills in Late Model Stock Cars at Langley Speedway, capturing multiple track titles. In 2022, a pivotal victory in a CARS Tour race at his home track propelled him into a full-time Late Model Stock Car ride with Lee Pulliam. By October 2022, he made the bold decision to leave his job as a longshoreman to pursue racing professionally. And now, that decision is playing off well.

In his debut ARCA Menards Series season, Queen delivered an outstanding performance. His victories in the 2025 season have spanned various tracks, including Daytona, Kansas, Michigan, Dover, Iowa, DuQuoin, and Salem, showcasing his versatility and consistency. Now, he gets to celebrate a successful season with an emotional anecdote.

2025 ARCA Drivers Championship wrapped up with Brenden Queen

Brenden Queen, the 2025 ARCA Menards Series Drivers Champion, now an owner and driver in one sweeping year, paused long enough to soak it in. “Yeah, I feel great. I mean, it’s going to take some time to sink in once we get back and start celebrating, but super proud to open a racing group,” he said, his voice a mix of relief and disbelief. He made clear that this title is not just his, “Bringing home their first Owners title, and I guess first Drivers title in the same year is super cool, and just so proud of them, man,” he said, speaking of the team behind him.

Queen’s 2025 ARCA statistics validate his confidence in consistency and dominance. Over the season, he recorded 8 victories, 4 poles, and 17 or 16 top-5 finishes, numbers that allowed him to pull away in the standings well before the finale. He praised the team further, saying, “They bring two fast cars every time we run two cars. They bring the 28 fast every week, so it’s just a lot of fun to be a part of this organization. I’m proud of Steve, my crew chief. He did such a good job this year. It’s his first year, and we did it as rookies, and we know we don’t get rookie of the year. It’s a little rule. In my eyes, we’re still rookie of the year, too.” 

In the Toledo finale, though he finished 2nd, simply making a green-flag lap was enough to clinch both the Drivers’ and Owners’ titles for Pinnacle Racing Group. But when pressed on whether there was ever a moment he felt like he was the one to beat, Queen didn’t hesitate. “You never know that it’s your championship because every week’s new, and so many things can happen. I mean, part failure,” he said. “We broke at Watkins Glen there, and we had a tire go down at Charlotte. So many things out of your control, but I felt like if everything held together, we’d have a shot at winning races.”

The turnaround and rapid ascent of Pinnacle Racing Group (PRG) give weight to Queen’s pride in his team. What began as a concept in 2022 has evolved into a full-time ARCA operation by 2025, with Mark Webb, Jerry Webb, and Shane Huffman contributing to the development of infrastructure, driver development, and team culture. On race day, with the championship hanging in the balance, Queen nearly put the exclamation mark on the year with another win.

“At the end of the day, it’s racing, right? It’s short track racing. I’m glad we didn’t wreck. Close to wrecking, but after that, my rear tires were just really ticked, and I couldn’t get it back under me, and then just there at the end, caught lap traffic in bad spots. I just couldn’t close it. I thought we were going to have one more shot there, lapping some of those Toyotas, and I just couldn’t get a break. So super proud of the effort,” he continued.

However, his mention of mechanical failures and unpredictable misfortune echoes the kind of adversity that is common in ARCA’s demanding mix of track types: superspeedways, short ovals, dirt tracks, and road courses all in one schedule. Queen added, “They’re all special. Obviously, Daytona, super special. That’s one I’ll have forever. I think Dover was really cool. Michigan holding off Corey Heim. Went into Salem when we didn’t quite have the best car, I don’t think,” knowing that different tracks need different expertise.

Finally, Queen’s ambition to move up from ARCA mirrors trajectories of past champions, and his dual roles reflect a forward-looking mindset. He conveyed, “It takes a lot of funding and a lot of partners to move up, and I feel like with the right opportunity, I can do it, but we’ll just keep fighting. Hopefully get something sorted out here in the next couple of weeks and have some plans.”

He already has part-time starts in NASCAR’s national series, including the Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing and in the Truck Series with Spire Motorsports, though none have been full-time yet. His success this year gives him more credentials in negotiations and sponsor discussions, and shows that his championship wasn’t just about luck, but a foundation to build on. But while Queen’s dreams come true today, another NASCAR driver reflects on a missed opportunity.

One-point playoff exit leaves NASCAR driver emotional

Taylor Gray’s 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series season showed immense promise, but the Charlotte Roval proved to be his heartbreak moment. In the post-race press conference after the Xfinity race, Gray didn’t hold back: “I’m probably gonna go home and cry myself to sleep.” A brutal one-point elimination to Sammy Smith, determined by NASCAR’s playoff tiebreaker rules, left Gray gutted despite strong efforts throughout the round, including poles at Bristol and a P6 at Kansas.

“Well, truly. It’s two, right? Because even if we’re tied, he’s going to get the tiebreaker right? So truly, it’s two positions. It sucks, right?” Gray said, reflecting on the razor-thin margins. He candidly admitted the team’s shortcomings, saying, “We weren’t good enough today. We just weren’t a playoff-caliber car.” At the Roval, where tight corners and tire wear test precision, the No. 54 lacked the pace to run with leaders like Cole Custer and Chandler Smith. Despite a clean race, Gray’s team fell short due to a slow right-rear tire swap on his final stop that cost three seconds and track position.

He expressed loyalty to his crew chief, Jason Ratcliff: “I’m not sure, Jason made that call, and obviously any call that Jason makes, I’m going to stand behind him 100%, and I’m still going to stand behind my call 100%.” Gray’s frustration summed up the reality of NASCAR playoffs: that perfection is the only path forward. “I think it comes down to, we just weren’t working well enough. They should plot out perfect enough,” he said.

A combination of small errors, from pit strategy to missed stage points, snowballed into that one-point deficit. His words capture both the mental toll on young drivers and the exciting standards of playoff racing, where one misstep can end a dream, even after months of consistent top-10 and top-5 finishes.