The “Bean Machine” is back for two more NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races in 2024 with Tricon Garage. The Mooresville, North Carolina-based team announced that CARS Tour championship contender Brenden “Butterbean” Queen will be back in one of their trucks at Nashville Superspeedway at the end of June and Kansas Speedway in September.

Queen made his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut for Tricon Garage last month at North Wilkesboro Speedway. He turned heads when he turned in the fastest lap in practice, and received a standing ovation from the crowd after his fourth-place finish.

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“Honestly, I’m just very thankful and blessed to have more opportunities,” Queen told FloRacing on Tuesday. “Wilkesboro went really, really well. And now to have the opportunity to be back with that group for two more to keep learning and building on what I learned at Wilkesboro and now getting experience on some bigger tracks will be huge for my path to try to get there full time.”

North Wilkesboro Speedway was the perfect track for Queen to make his debut. It’s a short track, and he won at North Wilkesboro in CARS Tour competition in 2023. 

The bean is back.

Brenden “Butterbean” Queen returns to drive the No. 1 at Nashville and Kansas!👏 pic.twitter.com/joc1Esrjdq

— TRICON (@TRICONGarage) June 4, 2024

But Nashville and Kansas will be bigger tests for Queen as he looks to make the next step on his racing journey. Nashville (1.33-miles) and Kansas (1.5-miles) will be the first two races on intermediate tracks for him, and the style of racing will be much different than he’s used to.

“This will be my true test of aero racing and stuff like that,” said Queen. “For me, I want to go run well and perform, but like Wilkesboro I want to learn as much as I can and complete all the laps. I feel like if I can do that, that will put us in a good position to finish as well as we can. The whole time will be a learning curve with how the aero works, but it’s something that in this part of my career I need to go do. To have this opportunity this year is very valuable.”

Queen said that his ultimate goal for these two races is to earn approval from NASCAR to race at that level on every type of track, which would be needed should a full-time opportunity arise. 

“You just hope that you can go perform and hopefully get the opportunity to keep running these races and hopefully catapult that into a full-time opportunity next year. By running these races you get approved for all of the tracks, so you’re kind of getting that training deal out of the way this year.”

The Chesapeake, Virginia native will be pulling a weekend double-duty in June for the Nashville start. He will race the truck for Tricon Garage on Friday night, June 28, and then fly back to Virginia to compete in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 at South Boston Speedway on Saturday, June 28 in his Lee Pulliam Performance No. 03. The Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 is the first leg of the Virginia Triple Crown.

Ready to get back to work in the No. 1 @TRICONGarage Toyota Tundra. 👊🏼

Big thanks to @ToyotaRacing for the opportunity. Hopefully we can build off of the momentum at @NashvilleSuperS and @kansasspeedway. https://t.co/fdhJ3ZLYvL

— Brenden Queen (@03Butterbean) June 4, 2024

In September, the race at Kansas Speedway falls on Friday, September 27, the same night as qualifying for the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway, which is the finale for the Virginia Triple Crown. 

Queen said that the goal is to compete in all three legs of the Virginia Triple Crown (the middle leg is the Hampton Heat 200 at Langley Speedway), but he’ll need some help from Mother Nature to make that happen. And if he doesn’t get that help, his Lee Pulliam Performance Late Model Stock Car team will have a substitute driver pilot his No. 03 machine.

“I think it’s going to just depend on the weather at Martinsville and the weather at Kansas,” Queen explained. “If the weather works out and qualifying gets moved at Martinsville or something and I can make it, then I can make it. But the main focus will obviously be on the Truck race.”

Meanwhile, Queen currently sits third in CARS Tour points, nine points out of the lead. Queen scored his first victory of the season two races ago at Tri-County Speedway (NC) and took over the points lead heading into last race at Langley Speedway (VA), his home track.

Queen was contending for the win at Langley last weekend before a late-race spin left him with a 14th-place finish.

The CARS Tour and Queen will be back in action on Saturday, June 15 at Virginia’s Dominion Raceway where Queen finished second in a photo finish to Bobby McCarty one year ago.

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