
“Being a racing driver means you are racing with other people and if you no longer go for a gap that exists you are no longer a racing driver because we are competing.”
-Ayrton Senna, 1992
Brenden Queen embodied the famous quote from the world’s most legendary race car driver on Saturday night when he executed a bold three-wide maneuver on Connor Hall and Corey Heim that ultimately won him the Hampton Heat 200 at Langley Speedway.
Heim had led most of the prestigious Late Model Stock race from the pole and occupied the front row alongside Hall when the decisive restart took place with 11 laps remaining.
Queen took the front row three wide into turn 1 and emerged on the other side as the leader.
There was slight contact between Queen and Heim, but the incident devolved in the center of the corner as Hall spun off Heim’s nose. Heim drove into the sideways Hall and both were eliminated from contention.
The ethics were very much in debate, but the results scored Queen the leader of the Hampton Heat 200. From there, Queen nailed his restart with three laps ago and beat the likes of Peyton Sellers, Brandon Pierce and Timothy Peters into Turn 1 and was left unchallenged.
“This is the biggest win of my career,” Queen said. “We really want the championship this year. We’re hungry for it. I didn’t want to wreck them by no means, but the rule in the drivers meeting once you get to the flag stand, you can go to the bottom.
“I got to the apron and we hit. I don’t want to do that. It’s the Hampton Heat, man. I’ve lost this so many times.”
Heim led a majority of the race from the pole, but was under constant pressure from Hall and Danny Edwards Jr. At the same time, Queen spent much of the early parts of the race outside of the top-10 and began his methodical charge to the front in the final 50 laps.
He timed his passes well and utilized the choose cone to his advantage until he found himself third behind the leaders with 11 to go after a Craig Eastep spin in Turn 2.
I really have no words. Completely pathetic driving to take out the two best cars for the win. We were so close to another triple crown win, thank you to LPP for a great car as always.
— Corey Heim (@CoreyHeim3) July 19, 2020
Hall just wishes he could have continued to duke it out with one of his closest friends.
“Corey Heim is one of my best friends and if he had won, I was going to be the first there to give him a high five,” Hall told The Weekly Racer. “We were beating and banging on each other and it was great racing.
“The guy that caused an early end of our night saw the trophy. Winning this race is a great feeling, and this isn’t the way I’d want to win it, but he’s the guy going home with the trophy and the $10,000. But people who know racing, who understand racing, know who the best drivers and cars were here tonight.”
Queen was adamant that Heim and Hall would have done the same thing.
“Obviously, he’s doing his job to protect, but we hit and it took (Hall) out with him,” Queen said. “If they said they wouldn’t do it, they’re crazy, it’s the Hampton Heat 200.”
- Brenden Queen
- Brandon Pierce
- Peyton Sellers
- Trey Crews
- Timothy Peters
- Blake Stallings
- Grayson Cullather
- Jared Fryar
- Stacy Puryear
- Justin Johnson
- Justin S. Carroll
- Thomas Scott
- Mark Wertz
- Terry Carroll
- Casey Wyatt
- Alex Brock
- Rick Gdovic
- Danny Edwards
- Corey Heim
- Connor Hall
- CE Falk III
- Colin Garrett
- Greg Edwards
- Bobby McCarty
- Craig Eastep
- Rodney Boyd
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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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