Brenden 'Butterbean' Queen reveals close relationship with Cup Series crew chief Cliff Daniels

The racing world is pretty small, all things considered. But did anyone know that Brenden “Butterbean” Queen and Cliff Daniels are friends? Not just, hey how you doing, friends. The ARCA champion texts with the Cup crew chief pretty much weekly.

There are a lot of young drivers who would kill to text Kyle Larson’s crew chief regularly. Butterbean Queen happens to have a very close friendship with Cliff Daniels. One that he says has helped him become a better race. Because how could it not?

While on the Stacking Pennies Podcast, Butterbean talked about people who are helping him in his career. The connection with Daniels came up, and Corey LaJoie and Ryan Flores wanted to know more.

“Cliff Daniels sends me a text every race. … Cliff drove one of my late models in 2018, so we go way back, and I love it because he tells me what I need to hear,” Queen said. “You know, I get my congratulations texts from him, but he’s going to let me know what I did wrong, and that’s what I need.

“You don’t always need to be told you’re great. And I respect him so much for that because he wants me to succeed but to actually have somebody who’s willing to tell you, ‘Hey, you lost because of this, and ain’t nobody to blame but yourself. Sometimes you need to hear it.”

Butterbean Queen won eight races this season in the ARCA Menards Series. You could argue that he let a few get away. He also stole one or two on the way. That’s how racing goes at times. That late restart at Phoenix comes to mind when Brent Crews put him in the wall in the final corner to win the race. Aric Almirola made a similar move to win the Xfinity race that weekend.

This season showed that Butterbean is ready for a full-time NASCAR ride. With no inside knowledge on his situation, there are a few situations I could see him landing in. Those five Ram Trucks need drivers for Kaulig’s new program. Then again, Kaulig might want Queen to drive an Xfinity car for them.

It sounds like he’s staying in the Chevy pipeline with the Josh Wise program. If that is the case, and he doesn’t drive a Ram in 2026, could we see Queen at Spire? They have the trucks to make it happen. Where would you like to see Butterbean next season?