In February, Brenden Queen scored his biggest win of his career, the ARCA Menards Series race at Daytona International Speedway. Last Saturday, the man they call Butterbean drove a late model during practice at Dixieland Speedway.
“Of course, I will be driving at Dixieland whenever I get a break in my ARCA schedule,” Queen, of Chesapeake, Virginia, said. “Most ARCA races are on Friday [and Dixieland runs Friday nights], so maybe five or six times I’ll be at my home dirt track. Asphalt may be my main focus, but I love dirt racing.”
In 2022, Queen won track championships both on dirt and pavement, with titles at Dixieland Speedway and Langley Speedway.
“Dirt makes me better on the asphalt side,” said Queen. “It helps me to be able to feel in the seat how much grip my car has. I’m better on low-grip racing on asphalt because of racing on dirt. Also, in dirt you have to search around to find speed. You learn to manage your tires better, so you can drive to the point of not going over your tire.”
The night’s format for dirt racing also helped Queen.
“Dirt keeps you on your toes: three laps of practice, and then right into qualifying,” Queen said. “When we went to Phoenix a couple of weeks ago [for ARCA], practice and time trials were rained out. I never turned a lap there, but I adapted quickly.”
Queen’s grandfather dubbed him “Butterbean” as a baby for his resemblance to the boxer bearing the same nickname, Eric Esch. However, like the boxer, Queen says physical fitness plays a big role in him remaining competitive on whatever surface he races on. He works out regularly at the GM Tech Center.
“Our workouts include hand-eye coordination,” said Queen. “We test our brains by hitting colors and shapes in a vision test. We run, mountain bike, and race karts.”
In addition, he does his homework, too.
“Watching films and iRacing are great resources — they help improve driving all the way around,” Queen said. “In pavement racing, drivers are encouraged to race anywhere they can.”
However, his greatest strength, Brenden Queen said, are the teams he drives for. He competes for Pinnacle Racing Group in ARCA and a dirt late model fielded by John Staton and his family. Staton also owns Best Repair Company, which sponsors Queen in ARCA.
“To excel in either dirt or pavement you have to have people in your corner,” said Queen. “I’m fortunate to have a great team for both cars. On a lot of weekends, I have tested on pavement on a Friday afternoon, race on dirt Friday night, and was racing back on pavement on Saturday. It has made me better at both types of racing and is a lot of fun.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
