Butterbean Breaks Through In Daytona ARCA Opener

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With a late push from a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, a grassroots late model racer found victory lane Saturday at the most prestigious stock car track in the world.

Brenden ‘Butterbean’ Queen – the reigning CARS Late Model Stock Tour champion – drove to a stirring win in the ARCA Menards Series season opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway, leading the final 10 laps of the Chili’s Ride the ‘Dente 200 and holding off a last-ditch charge from William Sawalich.

The 27-year-old from Chesapeake, Va., landed a full-season ride with Pinnacle Racing Group to chase the ARCA national championship, and got his pursuit of that goal off to a rousing start.

After avoiding seven incidents throughout the 80-lap race, Queen found himself third in line following a restart with 13 to go, behind leader William Sawalich and Lavar Scott and in front of teammate Helio Castroneves.

Queen laid in wait until lap 71, when Scott flared to the outside to work past Sawalich, allowing Queen and Castroneves to follow him forward in the draft.

When Scott slid down to the inside at the entrance of the third turn, he got so far out front that Queen was able to use help from Castroneves behind him to surge up the outside and take the lead for good.

From there, Queen did a yeoman’s job of fending off both the inside and outside lanes, with Castroneves helping him play defense up until the top four – Queen, Castroneves, Scott, and Sawalich – broke away from the pack inside of three to go.

Sawalich picked up drafting help from Jason Kitzmiller coming to the white flag, faking high before darting back to the bottom and passing Scott for third place.

The Joe Gibbs Racing young gun then surged past Castroneves down the backstretch on the last lap, pulling up to Queen’s bumper but only pushing the No. 28 further out into the race lead.

Queen blocked every run from there to the finish line, edging out Sawalich by .094 seconds for his first national ARCA Menards Series win in just his second series start.

It was a watershed moment for Queen, who thought he might never get another chance to race in a major touring series after his 2019 ARCA appearance at Daytona ended in a mid-race DNF.

“Oh, my Lord, I can’t believe this!” a jubilant Queen said in victory lane. “We brought the mullet to the ARCA (Menards) Series, baby! All glory to God; I’m just a late model guy that worked hard to get this shot. I didn’t think this would be where the first win came, but we’re going to take it, that’s for sure!

“I was actually mad at myself over the last restart because I’d had good restarts all night, and I just mis-timed that one where it let the 6 (Scott) in, which was not the original plan at all,” Queen explained. “But I knew Helio would be a great pusher; our cars worked together really well at the January test. I knew the best-case scenario was having him behind me, and man … he gave me such a good run on the bottom to be able to clear to the lead.

“I knew I had some tough shoes to try and fill, taking over from (five-time 2024 winner Connor) Zilisch, but I hope this makes PRG happy they signed me and that this is the first of many.”

Sawalich hoped he’d have a chance coming to the checkered flag, but it wasn’t meant to be in his second of three races during Speedweeks.

“I definitely didn’t anticipate it being that long,” Sawalich admitted. “That was a long time in the car. But it got me ready for the Xfinity race, and we did have a fast Starkey Toyota. I can’t thank everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing enough, just wish we’d had a little bit more help there at the end.

“We lost a lot of our Toyota teammates in those wrecks earlier on, and if I’d had some of them in the draft with me, I think we could have been one spot better. Still learned a lot, though.”

Jason Kitzmiller was a career-best third, with Scott fading to fourth and Castroneves rallying from being collected in two of the race’s multi-car accidents for a fifth-place result.

Kole Raz, A.J. Moyer, Andy Jankowiak, Ryan Roulette, and Bryce Haugeberg closed out the top 10 finishers.

The biggest of the day’s numerous incidents came on lap four, when Cody Dennison’s No. 11 snapped loose in the high lane exiting turn four and went dead right into the outside wall before bouncing into the pack.

Corey Day then tipped Jankowiak around, leading to drivers scattering in all directions and a total of 15 cars either sustaining damage or being fully eliminated as a result of the melee.

Among those that didn’t make it to the checkered flag were Venturini Motorsports teammates Jake Finch, Lawless Alan, and Isabella Robusto; Day; Garrett Mitchell, otherwise known in racing circles as Cleetus McFarland; Thad Moffitt; and Katherine Legge.

But the day’s spoils belonged to Queen, who notably had a slightly different idea of what he wanted for his celebratory dinner of choice instead of race sponsor Chili’s.

“We’re going to Waffle House and we’re going to party it up with some chocolate milk!” he exclaimed.

The ARCA Menards Series season continues March 7 at Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway with the running of the General Tire 150. Sawalich is the defending race winner.