Brenden Queen Claims CARS Tour Late Model Stock Title, Conner Jones Wins Finale

Conner Jones finished the 2024 zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock season with his second straight win, while Brenden Queen secured the series championship with a fifth-place finish.

For Queen, the title is the pinnacle of a journey with Lee Pulliam Performance that began nearly two years ago, when the Virginia driver won in his first start for the team at the South Carolina 400 at Florence Motor Speedway.

Since then, the pairing has won six CARS Tour races, back-to-back runnings of the Hampton Heat at Langley Speedway as well as the 2023 Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National Motorsports Park.

Now, they can add the CARS Tour championship to that list, the first for Lee Pulliam Performance.

"It's just something I never knew would happen," said Queen. "Last year, coming up four or five points short was tough on all of us. This year wasn't looking good at times. We just never give up. That's been the motto the whole time I've been with LPP. Trust the process and never give up.

"I'm so grateful for the two years I've had here with Lee Pulliam. He deserved a CARS Tour championship. I'm proud to say we got him his first one. He's so deserving to take one back to Alton, Virginia. He works so hard, the whole organization does. We're going to spray some champagne, find some waffles, we might burn the Waffle House down at this rate."

The final race did not come without its challenges for Queen. A broken throttle spring during the first half of the race created some uneasy moments before it was replaced during a competition caution.

"David West, we broke a spring and had no throttle tension the first half of that race. He got it fixed at the break.

"Just having good people like Anthony Warren, my spotter, in my ear. All year, he did a great job. Lee being on the pit box. I had to learn how to drive it with no spring on the throttle. That was very wild. It took me a little bit. Once we got it figured out, we got the spring back on it. If you ain't ever had a spring on the throttle, that is not fun at North Wilkesboro."

Before embarking on the CARS Tour full-time with Lee Pulliam Performance in 2023, Queen was well-known as one of the drivers to beat at his hometown track of Langley Speedway. Along with now being a three-time winner of the Hampton Heat, he is also a three-time track champion at the Hampton, Virginia facility. Queen also won the track championship at East Carolina Motor Speedway in 2016.

However, competing and winning on the CARS Tour - and now holding its title - has established that Queen can compete with the best in Late Model Stock racing, well beyond his backyard.

"They always said I was a one-track wonder for a long time. We proved that wrong. Now we've won a championship on the hardest touring series there is out there."

Conner Jones passed Carson Kvapil with 16 laps to go, backing up his win one week ago at Tri-County Motor Speedway. While Kvapil and others searched for handling late in the race, Jones' car came to life as it burned off fuel.

"I feel like we were better when we were lower on gas," said Jones. "When we got it full, we were just way too loose. We were really loose in, really loose in the center, really loose off. I don't know. I think once we wore the gas off of it, it came to us, got a little tighter, got a little snugger. We could really move around the top."

Jones joins the prestigious list of winners at North Wilkesboro Speedway who have taken the coveted ride on the elevator to the track's rooftop victory lane.

"I'm just really happy. It's a big race, big place to win at," said Jones.

"We've been through a lot. It's been an up-and-down year. It feels really good to end it out with two wins."

-Photo credit: Tyson Gifford, TobyChristie.com

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