Last weekend YouTube sensation Cleetus McFarland made his debut start in an O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race. McFarland has also run some ARCA Menards Series races where he came in fourth at Rockingham last weekend and he ran a race in the Craftsman Truck Series earlier this year.
McFarland has petitioned NASCAR to approve his request to run the OAPS race at Talladega at the end of the month.
NASCAR officials have denied McFarland’s request. Currently, McFarland is only approved to run O’Reilly races on short tracks.
In a social media post McFarland said, “ladies and gentlemen, I wanted you to hear it from me first that I have been denied by NASCAR to run Talladega in my O’Reilly car. Made my O’Reilly debut last Saturday with hopes of getting approval for Talladega, but they did not see enough.”
After starting in 35th at Rockingham, McFarland had two goals – to finish the race and not finish last. He accomplished both goals with a 32nd place finish (38 cars started the race); but he was laps down after spinning the car out multiple times.
McFarland added, “nonetheless, NASCAR has said we’re going to 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. In the O’Reilly, I am still limited to short tracks.”
He continued, “it is what it is. I need more windshield time, regardless of whether it’s in an O’Reilly car, an ARCA car, or a truck — more windshield time is going to help me. I’ve got a lot to learn, guys. This isn’t as much of a step back or a push down as it seems.”
NASCAR Executive Vice President John Probst spoke on McFarland and the denial to run Talladega saying, “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.”
NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Jr, spoke on McFarland and NASCAR’s Talladega denial saying, “I saw enough to not approve him for Daytona or Talladega in the O’Reilly series. Was not present and in person for any of this, but I watched the YouTube video from the truck test with Niece. I watched the YouTube video of his O’Reilly test with RCR. And then I watched the race. And in all three of those, he busted his ass.”
JR added, “he did wall a truck off in all three of those instances and was, uh, you know, lost control of the car or the truck.”
On Rockingham, JR said, “it’s a hard tire, it’s a relatively repaved surface, so it’s got a very small window before you bust your ass. And it’s easy to bust your ass.”
He added, “to do what he did was really, really phenomenal for a guy who has no racing background. Didn’t grow up in a race family, didn’t grow up around racetracks. If they throw his ass into the ARCA series at Talladega… that is definitely not the next step for him. His next step is another race somewhere else. He should be racing Bristol. He should be racing ARCA and more truck races… from a mile and under.”