- McFarland backs away from his Cup Series dream after initially aiming for it.
- Is still content in ARCA but couldn’t pass up the O’Reilly shot with RCR.
- YouTuber-turned-driver purchased a speedway in 2020 before NASCAR debut.
Garrett Mitchell, known to most of his fans as Cleetus McFarland, has found that reality bites harder than any dream he once sold himself. After stepping into stock car racing with runs in the ARCA Menards Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series since last year, with guidance from the late Greg Biffle, McFarland had once set his sights on the Daytona 500, hoping to one day line up against the sport’s front runners.
Now, with a shot in NASCAR’s Tier 2 ranks, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series with Richard Childress Racing team, and a debut lined up at Rockingham Speedway this Saturday, that tune has changed. The climb he once thought he could take in stride now looks like a mountain with no clear path.
Cleetus McFarland admits he’s terrified
Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR, McFarland openly admitted that his outlook has changed after getting a taste of life inside the system. In his early talks with Biffle, he ran on raw ambition without a map. From the outside, NASCAR looked like a ladder waiting to be climbed with enough nerve. When Biffle held him back, the call did not land at the time.
Now, with skin in the game, that outlook has been turned on its head. The same driver who once eyed the Cup garage now wants to keep his distance from the big boys and the Next Gen car.
“I don’t want to race Cup at all. Like, that’s terrifying to me. Those guys are so the gap between my skill and those guys is massive. And I know that. and I had no desire to race in this series either. I was, I love ARCA. I’m like ARCA’s number one fan. It’s so fun. We don’t have to be rushed through our pit stops,” he said.
What once sounded like a shot worth taking now feels out of reach to him, at least for now. In ARCA, McFarland has found his footing, where the pace, the field, and even the rhythm of pit road give him room to learn without walking a tightrope each lap.
The move into the O’Reilly ranks, however, has thrown him into the deep end among the drivers who are way more experienced and faster than he is. The tempo, its demands, and the margin for error have all gone up a notch, leaving him to learn on the fly while trying to just survive. Even so, he knows turning down such a chance would have been a step in the wrong direction.
“It’s a lot of this O’Reilly thing takes way more skill than anything I’ve ever done. And like I said, I’ve put myself in the position now where it’s all up to me, and I don’t have the skill to back it up, but I’m doing my best to obtain that skill as fast as possible. And I know that sounds impossible, but I’m going to try my damnedest to do it,” he added.
So, while he started out in NASCAR thinking something like ‘how hard it can be,’ he’s now in ‘this is way harder than I imagined,’ recovery, and still choosing to go through with it anyway.
McFarland’s journey through racing
Introduced to cars by his father, Mitchell grew up around machines through detailing. During his college and law school days, he worked behind the scenes with 1320Video, handling social media, filming, and writing, building a following along the way. In 2015, alongside Kyle Loftis, he appeared in a video from Rocky Mountain Race Week, which went viral on YouTube and Facebook.
By 2017, he had made his own space, launching the first “Cleetus and Cars” event at Bradenton Motorsports Park. His rise gathered pace with builds such as “Leroy,” a stripped Chevrolet Corvette C5, which he raced across drag events. From there, he cast his net wider, stepping into series like No Prep Kings and Stadium Super Trucks.
In 2020, he bought the abandoned Desoto Speedway in Bradenton, Florida, rebranding it as the Freedom Factory, a move that let him host and run events such as the “Freedom 500.” After years spent in drag racing and burnout contests, he shifted toward structured competition.
McFarland made his Stadium Super Trucks debut in 2022 at Long Beach before stepping into stock cars in 2025 through ARCA under Biffle’s watch.
This year, he added starts in the Truck Series at Daytona International Speedway and now prepares for his O’Reilly Series debut at Rockingham.
