NASCAR denies YouTube star ‘Cleetus McFarland’ to run O'Reilly Series race at Talladega

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Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images Share full article1The goal YouTube star “Cleetus McFarland” had to compete in the upcoming race at Talladega Superspeedway in NASCAR’s second-tier series is going to have to wait, with NASCAR denying the driver, whose actual name is Garrett Mitchell, to enter the race held on one of NASCAR’s biggest and fastest tracks.  NASCAR confirmed its decision Tuesday night shortly after Mitchell announced the news on social media. Mitchell, who has 4.7 million YouTube subscribers, along with millions of combined followers on other social media platforms, had been seeking to run in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Talladega, Ala., on April 25. “We’re all huge Cleetus fans. We all watch his videos and are certainly very appreciative of everything he’s done in our sport and will continue to do in our sport,” said John Probst, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, in a statement. “He is approved right now for O’Reilly Series short tracks, which means he’s good for all of ARCA, all of (NASCAR’s third-tier Truck Series), and then O’Reilly up through the short tracks. We’d like to see more out of Cleetus in the short tracks. So we’re not saying no, but there is more that we would like to see out of Cleetus before we would approve him for Talladega.” Mitchell, who has little experience racing stock cars competitively, made his O’Reilly Series debut last Saturday at Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina, an oval track just under a mile in length. He entered the race with the hope of demonstrating he was capable of racing at Talladega, where drivers routinely run in large packs at high speeds just inches apart.  But while Mitchell completed 244 of the 250 laps at Rockingham and didn’t cause a wreck that took out another competitor, his race wasn’t without incident: twice he spun out, twice he had half spins and he finished 32nd in the 38-car field. Rockingham represented just Mitchell’s second NASCAR start at the national level. In February, he competed in the Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway — a sister track to Talladega — and crashed after completing just five laps. Mitchell’s performance thus far at both Rockingham and Daytona, combined with his overall lack of racing experience, was evidently enough for NASCAR officials to deny him entry into the O’Reilly Series race at Talladega.  “Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to hear from me first that I have been denied by NASCAR to run Talladega in my O’Reilly’s car,” Mitchell said in a video on Instagram. “(I) made my O’Reilly’s debut last Saturday with hopes of getting approval for Talladega, but they did not see enough. Granted, it was a pretty hectic race. I tried to pass someone three-wide on the third lap, spun out, spun out a few more times. Didn’t crash or crash anybody, but still, it was pretty hectic. Nonetheless, NASCAR has said, we’re gonna need to see you run more ARCA and more trucks. I’m fully approved for trucks — which I have some of those on my schedule coming up — but in the O’Reilly’s, I am still limited to short tracks.” Mitchell is eligible to enter the ARCA race at Talladega, which is held on the same day as the O’Reilly Series race. Last year, he finished 10th in the ARCA race at Talladega. Mitchell did not say whether he would enter that event. “I’ve only been racing NASCAR for one year, so it was never my mission to go out and climb in an O’Reilly’s car and get to the top as fast as I can,” he said. “But we figured we’d try, and we didn’t get approved. So it is what it is. I need more windshield time, regardless of whether it’s in an O’Reilly’s car, an ARCA car or a truck; more windshield time is going to help me. I got a lot to learn, guys, so this isn’t as much of a step back or a push down as it seems — little bit of a kick in the nuts, but I just got to get out there in the other cars do as much learning as possible, and then hopefully I’ll get to run Daytona Talladega next year.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Jordan Bianchi is a motorsports reporter for The Athletic. He is a veteran sports reporter, having covered the NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball, college basketball, college football, NASCAR, IndyCar and sports business for several outlets. Follow Jordan on Twitter @jordan_bianchi