NASCAR’s youth movement has made it feel at times like a 23- or 24-year-old in the Cup Series is an aging veteran. Chase Elliott, for instance, won the Cup championship last season at 24 to cap his fifth full season in the series.

At Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway, however, Late Model points leaders Brenden “Butterbean” Queen, 23, and Connor Hall, 24, aren’t even half the age of six-time division titlists Greg Edwards and Danny Edwards Jr. or twotime champ Mark Wertz. So Queen and Hall are called the “young guns” as they lead the chase for the 2021 title that includes all five.

What Queen and Hall possess that the Edwards brothers and Wertz do not is a win in the Hampton Heat 200, which Queen describes as “Langley Speedway’s Daytona 500.” Should defending Heat champion Queen or 2019 winner Hall make it to Dale Lemonds Victory Lane in the 13th annual Hampton Heat 200 on Saturday, they would join C.E. Falk as the only multiple winners in event history.

“I’d like to join that club with C.E. and I thought I was going to join it last year,” Hall said. “The race gods had other plans.”

They smiled on Queen, whose late-race contact with leader Corey Heim sent his car into then-second-place Hall. Following a caution, Queen went on to win by a half a second over North Carolinian Brandon Pierce, who will be back Saturday.

“It would be cool to join C.E. as the second with more than one Hampton Heat because I think he’s one of the best drivers of the modern era at Langley Speedway,” said Queen, referring to Falk’s three Heat titles and four Langley Speedway Late Model Division titles.

As always, that won’t be easy for Queen, Hall or any of the Langley Speedway regulars in a field of about 35 entries that includes defending NASCAR weekly racing national champion Josh Berry and former national champion Peyton Sellers, the 2013 Heat winner. But after out-of-town drivers blocked Langley regulars from Victory Lane six consecutive times, Hall and Queen kept the trophy at home the past two seasons.

“We were behind some of those guys technologically for a while, but I think we’ve caught up,” Queen said.

So Queen and Hall would have to be considered among the favorites, based on their Late Model Division-leading three wins apiece, current form and Heat victories.

Although he has yet to win a division title, Hall has generally fielded the fastest car in the division the past two seasons, and his six-point wins are twice as many as anyone else. His non-points victory in the ’19 Heat was bigger than any of them.

“In 2019, I was still struggling to find myself in the sport and fighting an internal battle about whether I could hang with the big guys,” said Hall, who added he benefited greatly from Wertz’s mentoring the previous two seasons. “That win was a turning point in my career — I felt like I had paid my dues.

“Now that I’ve completely taken over working on every single moving part of my car, it has helped and we’re running better than ever.”

Queen said that winning the Heat “put me in a different category and propelled me to the 2020 Late Model Division championship.” Asked if he could choose defending only one of those titles this season, Queen broke out in laughter trying to decide which. “I’ve never thought about

“I’ve never thought about that and I really don’t know how to answer,” said Queen, who added that crew chief Phil Warren and his crew deserve lots of credit for putting him in position to contend for both. “I would really like to become the only one with C.E. Falk to win more than one Hampton Heat, but I’d also like to add to my legacy by winning multiple Langley Speedway Late Model championships.

“If I win this year’s division championship, no one can say that it was a fluke to win it (as in 2020) with no points-race victories. I’m just going to try to win both.”