Mooresville, North Carolina – Reigning zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car champion, Brenden “Butterbean” Queen is taking the next step on his path to the highest levels of NASCAR in 2025. Queen is joining Pinnacle Racing Group (PRG) to compete for a championship in the ARCA Menards Series, the team announced Wednesday.

As a race fan, this final day for the CARS Tour has just about everything you can want and more. If you’re looking for a historic race track as the setting for the finale, you got it in North Wilkesboro Speedway. If you’re looking for two rivals to battle each other for the championship, you got it in Connor Hall and Brenden “Butterbean” Queen. And if you’re looking for close, dramatic points battles, you got it as both the Late Model Stock Car and Pro Late Model championship battles are separated by single-digits.

The CARS Tour season is down to just two races, with two drivers vying for the right to call themselves a champion. It’s the showdown everyone has been hoping for with Hampton, Virginia’s Connor Hall battling Chesapeake, Virginia’s Brenden “Butterbean” Queen, with just one point separating these two bitter rivals heading into Saturday’s showdown at Tri-County Speedway.

For the second time in the last three races, Brenden “Butterbean” Queen was celebrating in CARS Tour victory lane, this time at Dominion Raceway. Queen won the pole with a new CARS Tour track record, and then led all 125 laps to score his second victory of the season.

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.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — TRICON Garage (TRICON) announced today that CARS Tour late model stock car standout Brenden “Butterbean” Queen will make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) debut at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway behind the wheel of the No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.

Brenden Queen did all he could do at Caraway Speedway. He put his Lee Pulliam Performance No. 03 on the pole, which clinched him the most poles bonus point. He led a lap and got a bonus point there. He led the most laps for another bonus point. And he went out and won the race, leading all 125 circuits on Saturday afternoon at the North Carolina short track. But in the end, it still wasn't enough to overcome his 21-point gap entering the race weekend to Carson Kvapil.

It’s hard to believe that the CARS Tour season is about to come to an end this Saturday at North Carolina’s Caraway Speedway, but with 15 races in the books we’ve only got one left. And entering season finale we have two drivers who have a chance to win the championship in Carson Kvapil and Brenden Queen.

Brenden Queen has had nightmares about running out of fuel in August's Old North State Nationals at Tri-County Motor Speedway ever since. He's replayed it, thinking about what that night would have meant for him. He would have been $30,000 richer, and perhaps the CARS Tour championship would be much more within reach.

When there's a Late Model Stock Car race at an extremely abrasive race track, everyone knows Brenden "Butterbean" Queen will be one of the drivers fighting for the win at the end of it. He's proved that multiple times in CARS Tour competition this season, and Saturday night at Jacksonville, North Carolina's New River All-American Speedway was no different.

For the second time in his career, hometown hero Brenden "Butterbean" Queen drove to the victory in the Hampton Heat 200, the biggest race of the season at Hampton, Virginia's Langley Speedway. Queen drove away from second-place finisher Connor Hall to take the win, lapping all the way up to sixth in the process. Queen beat Hall to the win by 0.887-second and takes over the top spot in the Virginia Triple Crown standings heading into the final race, the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway in September.