Brenden Queen Is NASCAR’s Next Blue-Collar Ram Truck-Driving Hero
Brenden Queen won the 2025 ARCA Menards Series championship in his rookie season, but only after a taking a long detour. The Virginia native thought he’d landed a full-time ARCA ride in 2019, but the deal fell apart after the first race in Daytona and his NASCAR dream looked like it might be over.
“When I had that that whole thing fell through, I just kind of decided that I was gonna be late model guy and I wanted to go home and just build my late model program to be, you know, one of the greats, where if I showed up I had a shot to win late model races,” Queen told American Cars And Racing during an appearance on The Gas podcast.
Queen was 21 at the time and went to work. He eventually took a job as longshoreman at the Port of Virginia in Hampton Roads, Va., to pay the bills, trading shifts with coworkers to find time to race. He made it worth his and everyone else’s time by winning three straight track championships in 2020-2022 at Langley Speedway, where he got his start as a kid racing Legends cars. From there, he stepped up to the CARS Tour and started gaining serious attention after finishing second in the 2023 standings and winning the championship in 2024.
That led him back to ARCA, where his success landed him a seat as the first signing for the new Kaulig Racing NASCAR Truck Series team, which is spearheading Ram’s return to the series in 2026. His big break coming at age 27. That’s later than usual in the modern NASCAR world, where the Truck Series and Xfinity Series are full of teenagers and drivers in their early 20s.
“It’s been a journey and I think it just makes you appreciate it even more, Queen said. “I mean, I left my job. I left a good paying job with good benefits to go race late model stock in the CARS Tour where I wasn’t making any money and I had no other option. I had to put all the chips in and I had to make it work and I think that’s why I drove the way I did, ‘cause I had to make it happen.”
Looking back, he thinks losing that ARCA ride in 2019 may have been a good thing.
“I sat there and I thought about that a long time like, ‘man, I wish that I could’ve had this opportunity 10 years ago,’ and of course I would’ve took it, but I don’t change my story for anything,” he said. “I think it shaped me into who I am and I learned so many lessons along the way and I don’t know if I’d be the person I am without those years of trial and error. So, you know, I’m I’m content with how it’s going and I’m just happy to be here.”
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Queen’s arrival in NASCAR couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. Ram’s return to the Truck Series is being accompanied by a huge promotional push from the brand, while NASCAR is planning a renewed effort to reconnect with its traditional fanbase, after coming to the realization that much of it felt abandoned when it started focusing on expanding to new markets in recent decades.
Along with the wins and titles he’s racked up, the mullet-haired Queen is known for his joyful victory celebrations, where he usually ends up on his car waving an American flag in front of his quickly growing fanbase. He should look right at home doing that on a Ram truck.
“I just try to be myself and bring some energy to the racing world that maybe they haven’t had in a while and try to represent my core fan base, you know, all the blue-collar people and show them I’m just one of them. I mean we leave there and go to the waffle House just like everybody else and love the American flag,” he said.
You can listen to the full interview with Brenden Queen from The Gas on YouTube and Spotify.