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CARS Late Model Stock Tour

All the ripple effect moments that led to Brenden Queen’s CARS Tour championship

There is a universe in which Brenden Queen spent the past two years at JR Motorsports or even more remarkably, not even in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour whatsoever.

That Queen and Lee Pulliam Performance stood triumphant on Saturday night at North Wilkesboro Speedway as champions was a testament to the butterfly effect or how one little ripple effect can change so much.

Flashback to before the pandemic and Queen starts hanging out with local Virginia businessman and dirt racer John Staton. Queen, and this is his idea of fun, just wanted to hang out at the dirt track when he wasn’t racing himself.

Queen, who had no dirt experience whatsoever, eventually gets nudged to drive Stanton’s Late Model and the pavement racer most known for his success at Langley Speedway immediately go out starts winning on clay too.

“I had to get him out of my car because he was winning so much and making me look bad,” Staton joked on Saturday at Wilkesboro.

Come the summer of 2022, Staton and Queen have practically become family and the Best Repair Company owner wants to literally get Queen into a different car — one that can challenge for the CARS Tour championship.

That desire led to a meeting with Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Wilkesboro in 2022 during Racetrack Revival but Queen and Staton ultimately felt like Carson Kvapil was going to be the primary guy there following the graduation of Josh Berry.

Then came a meeting with Pulliam.

“So we left this track about three years ago, when Butterbean ran with his family car here for the first time,” Staton said. “We went to LPP and I didn’t know who Lee Pulliam was. We went on Butterbean’s behalf and we talked for a good long while that day and never even talked racing.

“I just learned about Lee, what kind of person he was, and thought a lot of his family. It really became obvious that this was the right fit.”

The way Pulliam tells it, Staton and Queen believed in him way more than he did at that exact moment in time.

“He says I took a chance on him but I felt like they were taking a chance on me,” Pulliam said. “We both had something to prove when we came together.

“My cars were not running as good as I felt like they should. He came to me and said he just didn’t have the resources or infrastructure to run the full tour. He told me they had talked to Dale but wanted to come here. That meant a lot. He grew up racing against me and saw the success I had as a driver and wanted to be a part of that.”

And Queen says that’s exactly what it came down to.

“It’s simple,” Queen said. “I raced against Lee. I know how good he was, his work ethic, and his refusal to lose attitude. I just knew how hard he worked to find a thousandth of a tenth. That’s what I saw and he did that with me. He made me look like a rock star and put me on the national map as far as big time Late Model racing was concerned.”

But Queen did his part too, reaching a level that Staton believed in once they started dirt racing together in 2022.

“This is a very cool moment,” Staton said. “Not only for me, but for my wife, my son, daughter-in-law and Best Repair Shop employees.

“We all believed in him and he’s become like our adopted kid. He’s family.

There’s that word again.
Family.

Everywhere Queen goes, he makes family, starting with his own, and then the Statons and now the Pulliams.

Queen and the Pulliams are going on vacation next week and it’s just a reminder of how important family is to these groups of people that all came together to win the CARS Tour championship over this past summer.

It’s a familiar refrain for anyone who passes through Lee Pulliam Performance too — just ask Corey Heim and Brandon Pierce.

“Brenden always thanks me for putting him on the map, but really, he came here while we were in a dry spell and we won our first race out together,” Pulliam said. “He put us back on the map too. We helped each other out and he’s like a little brother to me. He is so selfless. Like, he gave up his ride at Martinsville so I could race when the schedule worked out that he didn’t have to. Who does that?

“So he’s family and we’re going on a family vacation next week.”

And then, after that, comes the business of announcing what’s next. Queen was wearing his Clear28 hat over the weekend, a reminder that he signed with the agency owned by veteran racer and spotter Brandon Mcreynolds.

Right now, they have an ARCA opportunity on the table, but even over the weekend at Wilkesboro did other NASCAR national touring overtures present themselves. Certainly, closing out on the CARS Tour championship doesn’t hurt as well.

“We know it’s a money driven sport, but having those people that are in the trenches when I live five hours away, not near the clique, is big” Queen said. “Having smarter people at that, who know how everything works down there, it’s huge.

“Brandon and everyone at Clear28 are class acts. We want the same things. If I can keep moving up and have bigger opportunities, that’s a win for both of us. There’s a lot of trust but we do have a lot of conversations about whether it’s full-time there, or a part-time in something else, where you can win in. It’s a lot and you only get one shot at it.”

But in addition to his agent, Queen has some big benefactors too in Pulliam and Staton, his family. Pulliam, who is widely regarded in national touring circles, says he’s made phone calls to everyone he knows in NASCAR to see what might be available for Queen.

And Staton has pledged to continue being part of this journey too.

“We’re heavily involved,” Staton said. “We’ve been in all the meetings and a lot of that is a credit to Lee, and everyone he knows, and Clear28 and their expertise. We have some really special things coming up and this is just the beginning for him. We’re proud to be with Butterbean and can’t wait to see where he takes us.”

Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.

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