gettyimages-2153439065.jpg
Getty Images

There are certain moments in the theater of sports that blur the line between fantasy and reality. And oftentimes, it is the everyman story -- a common man seizing an unlikely chance and succeeding in epic fashion -- that elicits the strongest feelings, most resonates with those who bear witness to it, and then finds a place in American sports mythology. Boxer James J. Braddock's rise from a dock worker on social assistance to world heavyweight champion, for instance, so inspired the nation that he was immortalized in the American canon as the "Cinderella Man" -- a story further popularized by the 2005 film of the same name.

What occurred last month at North Wilkesboro Speedway felt like something out of such a film: At the conclusion of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, the grandstands rose to their feet and a crowd gathered on pit road to give their thunderous approval not to the winner, but to the man who finished fourth.

Two years after working as a full-time longshoreman at the Port of Virginia, Brenden "Butterbean" Queen made his Truck Series debut for TRICON Garage after rising to prominence as a star late model racer in the CARS Tour. Putting his mastery of short track racing on full display, Queen drove all the way through the field twice -- including after a pit road penalty -- and battled for as high as second in the closing laps before crossing the finish line in fourth. 

After having already earned his way onto their radar by winning a North Wilkesboro late model race loaded with NASCAR talent, the fans of Wilkes County gave a rousing roar of approval to the 26-year-old from Chesapeake, Va., as many more -- including some of the biggest names in NASCAR like Kevin Harvick, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell and others -- came to experience, appreciate, and congratulate Queen on the moment.

"I didn't realize the chants were for me until somebody had told me, and I turned around and kind of acknowledged everybody up there," Queen told CBS Sports. "That was like a storybook moment right there that I'll never forget no matter what happens in my career. That is something that just doesn't happen for everybody. To experience and feel that – I'm a short track guy, so there's more people that raced than most short tracks can hold -- And just to feel the love and feel the support from everybody ... It was just like a 'we might not have won the race, but we felt like we did' type of feeling. So that was really cool."

Queen's story speaks to the very soul of the American racer in that in an era of pay-to-play, where the hiring of drivers often boils down to who can bring enough sponsorship rather than merit, he earned what he was given at North Wilkesboro thanks to the skill he has behind the wheel of a racecar. Not long ago, the talent in Queen's hands may have simply toiled away in obscurity, only occasionally unsheathed after long, hard hours of moving shipping boxes from containers to trains. But fate has been on his side thanks to the right platform and the right moments.

Thanks in part to the success stories of drivers like Ross Chastain and Josh Berry, there has been a renewed interest among top NASCAR teams to seek out standout talented racers and give them their chances at the big time regardless of sponsorship. Concurrently, such talents are more visible than ever before. The CARS Tour, the late model touring series that Queen competes in full-time, was acquired in 2023 by an ownership group including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Justin Marks, giving it the full support and legitimacy of some of NASCAR's most prominent figures to go with a broadcast streaming deal with FloRacing.

"A lot of the guys that didn't have funding to make it are there -- that's where everybody's at that didn't have the money," Queen said of the CARS Tour. "There's so much talent there, and that's all they could do is race late models. So it's super hard to win in that series. And then I think when the ownership group took over, it basically put more eyes and spotlight on what we were already doing. It just put it on a bigger scale."

The expansion of grassroots racing's platform, and the opportunity it avails for short track drivers to exhibit their talents and gain national prominence, isn't a perfect panacea for the ills of the NASCAR ladder system. For every driver like Queen or Bubba Pollard who gets their chance, there are many more who still wait for a car owner or manufacturer imaginative enough to give them a chance to race in one of NASCAR's national touring series. 

Compared to five or 10 years ago, there seem to be more willing parties on that front. For his part, Queen credited manufacturer support from Toyota as helping him get his opportunity with TRICON.

"I do think there's a lot more eyes on wanting to find talent over money, And I think this sport would love to get to that point," Queen said. "I think that'd be a really, really cool day for a lot of racers. … It's wanting to trend that way."

What Queen is trending towards is being able to make a living out of racing, as he set out to do at the end of 2022 when the support of sponsor Best Repair Company helped him leave his longshoreman job to go race. As he pursues a championship in the CARS Tour, he continues to pursue an engineering degree at Old Dominion University, with his ultimate goal -- racing full-time in one of NASCAR's top three series and being on the path to Cup -- now seemingly in reach.

Now, the next step has come. After his North Wilkesboro debut, TRICON Garage held the seat of their No. 1 truck for Queen to race this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway and at Kansas in September, giving him two more chances to prove he belongs racing amongst the top drivers in all of stock car racing -- or, if you will, two more trips to the ball for a new century's "Cinderella Man."

"You don't take it for granted, because I know how hard we've worked to make it here, and a lot of work left," Queen said. "But it definitely feels good to be trending in the right direction."