Brenden Queen — Driver Profile
Car: No. 12 | Team: Kaulig Racing | Series: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series CARS Tour: No. 5, Lee Pulliam Performance | Manufacturer: Ram (Trucks) / Chevrolet (CARS Tour) Status: Full-time Trucks (2026) | Hometown: Chesapeake, Virginia | Age: 28 | Nickname: Butterbean 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series: 14th in points (242 pts)
Career Highlights
Brenden Queen is the 2024 CARS Tour Late Model Stock champion, the 2025 ARCA Menards Series champion, and one of the most complete developmental résumés in short track racing, a driver who won everything there was to win on the regional level before graduating to NASCAR's national series.
Born November 21, 1997, Queen started racing at age six in the Legends division at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Virginia, the track that would become the foundation of his career. He won three consecutive Late Model Stock track championships at Langley (2020, 2021, 2022) and became a three-time winner of the Hampton Heat, the facility's most prestigious race. At Langley, Queen was not just competitive, he was dominant.
In 2023, Lee Pulliam took a chance on Queen, bringing him into Lee Pulliam Performance for a full-time CARS Tour LMSC campaign in the No. 5 Chevrolet. The pairing clicked immediately. Over two seasons, Queen and Pulliam's team won six CARS Tour races, including back-to-back Hampton Heat victories and the 2023 Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National Motorsports Park. Queen clinched the 2024 CARS Tour LMSC championship with a fifth-place finish at North Wilkesboro Speedway, the first title for Lee Pulliam Performance.
Queen then moved to the ARCA Menards Series in 2025, driving the No. 28 Chevrolet for Pinnacle Racing Group. He won eight races and finished inside the top five in seventeen of twenty starts to capture the ARCA championship.
That résumé, three Langley titles, a CARS Tour championship, and an ARCA championship, earned Queen a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series ride with Kaulig Racing in 2026. He drives the No. 12 Cummins Ram 1500 as part of Ram's high-profile return to the Truck Series. Queen was announced as Kaulig's first driver for the program, a testament to how the sport views his trajectory.
From Langley Speedway to the Truck Series, Brenden Queen took the path that short track racing is supposed to offer: win locally, prove it on tour, and earn the next step. He proved it at every level.
2026 Season
Queen is in his rookie full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series campaign with Kaulig Racing, running 14th in the standings as the Ram program builds through its return season.