Former CARS Tour champion Brenden “Butterbean” Queen has reunited with Lee Pulliam Performance to make select Late Model Stock Car starts this year, starting with the CARS Tour race at Dominion Speedway.
Queen won the 2024 CARS Late Model Stock Tour championship with Lee Pulliam Performance, then followed up that championship run by moving to the ARCA Menards Series in 2025, where he won the championship as well. Butterbean is currently racing full-time in the NASCAR Truck Series for Kaulig Racing where he currently sits 13th in the standings.
“This is super cool for me, because my time with Lee was a very special moment in my career,” Queen told FloRacing. “I truly feel that without those two seasons with him, I probably don’t get the opportunities that I have now to race with Ram and Kaulig in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. I’m probably still racing Late Models on the weekly level if I didn’t get those years with him. So it’s really cool to get to race with him again, because win or lose we always have a good time. I know the car will be good, and it’ll be fun to lay it all out on the track.
“I’m so excited to go racing with Butterbean again,” said team owner Lee Pulliam. “We won a handful of races together, a CARS Tour championship, and he became a brother to me in a short period of time. I’m so thrilled for him that he’s moved on to bigger things in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, but I’m so thankful that we’re going to get to race together seven times this summer and fall. I can’t wait to get to Dominion with him next month and chase more trophies.”
On top of Dominion, Queen will race the CARS Tour races at North Wilkesboro and Florence. He will race the South Boston 200 at South Boston Speedway and the Hampton Heat at Langley Speedway, the South Carolina 400 at Florence Motor Speedway and the Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National Motorsports Park.
“I picked the SoBo 200 because I finished second in it, but that’s one of the crown jewels I haven’t won,” Queen told FloRacing. “If I can win that I’d really just be missing a clock at Martinsville. It’s just cool to be in the conversation to win a fourth Hampton Heat. That one will be cool to race in front of my hometown crowd and the OG Bean Nation fans. I picked a bunch of these crown jewels because it’ll be cool to add another one of those to what I’ve already accomplished.”
Pulliam is excited to have Queen back behind the back behind the wheel and chase even more victories with the team.
“I’m so excited to go racing with Butterbean again,” Pulliam told FloRacing. “We won a handful of races together, a CARS Tour championship, and he became a brother to me in a short period of time. I’m so thrilled for him that he’s moved on to bigger things in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, but I’m so thankful that we’re going to get to race together seven times this summer and fall. I can’t wait to get to Dominion with him next month and chase more trophies.”
Queen will be back behind the wheel of the No. 03, the same number he won the championship with. Owner Lee Pulliam and Ted Musgrave Jr. will split crew chief duties with Queen. Musgrave is currently the crew chief for Carson Brown, who is racing full-time in the CARS Tour with Lee Pulliam Performance.
