Chesapeake’s ‘Butterbean’ places second in CARS race

Brenden Queen said he hated missing Langley Speedway’s opening night, but he made the most of it.

The Chesapeake native, nicknamed “Butterbean,” tied a track record with three consecutive Langley Late Model season titles (202022). Now that he’s on the CARS Tour, one of NASCAR’s primary feeders, he often has to miss Langley’s program.

Last Sunday, he took the

No. 03 car to second place at Hickory Speedway in North Carolina. He is being featured on the second season of “The Butterbean Experience” on FloRacing.

This weekend, Queen is competing in the National Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram

250 at New River All-American Speedway in Jacksonville, North Carolina, where he won last year from the pole position. Hampton’s Connor Hall accomplished that in 2022.

Among the racers they’ll be competing against? Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Magnificent 7-on-7?: Former record-setting quarterback Phillip Sims, about to enter his second year as Princess Anne’s football coach, will host the Phillip Sims 7-v-7 Invitational on May 11 at the Cavaliers’ stadium. It should be a good offseason showcase.

Among the Hampton Roadsarea teams committed to join PA are Lake Taylor, Western Branch, Grassfield, Hickory, Indian River, Denbigh, Granby, Nansemond River, Churchland, Norcom and King’s

Fork. The out-of-town entries include Manchester, L.C. Bird, St. Michael’s, Caroline, Huguenot, Wakefield and Dinwiddie.

Todd’s new turf: Newport News Public Schools held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday to celebrate the new artificial turf at Todd Stadium.

The surface was installed this spring and will be available for school sports events and for outside groups to use. The field is painted in NNPS colors of blue, yellow and white, with an NN logo at midfield and Todd in one end zone, Stadium in the other. According to NNPS spokesman Jennifer L. Williams, one of the first events on the new turf will be the city’s first middle school football playoff games — the semifinals on May 18 at noon and 3 p.m., then the championship game on May 24 at 6 p.m.

Streak’s still ragin’: One recent Sun Belt Conference statistic seems unfathomable. By sweeping three games from James Madison last weekend in Lafayette, the Louisiana softball team won its nation-leading 85th consecutive conference series, dating back to March 2013.

Ranked 21st nationally, the Ragin’ Cajuns (28-13, 13-0 Sun Belt entering Saturday) are in San Marcos this weekend to take on No. 22 Texas State (32-11, 9-4), who could challenge that streak but who lost 7-0 Friday.