Photo Courtesy: Christian Wilson
I don’t think we’ve ever seen a ticker display a nickname in NASCAR. Let alone a name like “Cleetus” or “Squirrel.” It’s like Talladega Nights, but based on a true story. What we’re seeing with Cleetus McFarland is arguably one of the most exciting story lines this year.
RCR knew what they were going against the grain and letting McFarland skip ranks to the O’Reilly’s series. People can debate whether others deserve the seat or whether he even has the skills to do it, but 4.75 million subscribers is good for business.
What we’re seeing is the Cleetus McFarland effect. McFarland’s unconventional rise in motorsports started on YouTube, which ascended into the drag racing scene. He documented his builds with his buddies and leaned into a moniker of a redneck. That Internet personality is Cleetus.
Cleetus, also known by his government as Garrett Mitchell, became a sensation. The years of YouTube fame netted him enough cash to buy a track and build the “Freedom Factory.”
A legendary film once said, “If you build it, they will come,” and that’s exactly what McFarland did. He blessed the motorsports scene with his own type of heaven. A place where people share the love of racing. A place where McFarland developed a friendship with the late NASCAR driver Greg Biffle.
In a recent Door Bumper Clear podcast, Cleetus said before everything with ARCA and RCR that he called Biff and said he wanted to run the Daytona 500. Biffle quickly shot that down and laid out what he had to do to get there.
He started running ARCA, and this year his buddy Squirrel McNutt joined the series. George “Squirrel McNutt” Siciliano is a long-time cameraman and one of the characters of McFarland’s crew.
On the DBC podcast, McFarland indicated that he and McNutt are fully invested in NASCAR with the plan to run a full season next year. The duo is a viral sensation and is developing new stars as they document their journey.
An unlikely star was born this year. That star is Jesse Love’s crew chief, Danny Stockman. Stockman was first seen in the O’Reilly series car test video at Rockingham, and he’s been pure entertainment ever since that release.
He is everything you want in a NASCAR persona. He knows the sport and has a sense of humor. The internet was waiting for the moment Danny said to Cleetus, “Put ‘em on the dash.”
“Downforce Danny” was born from Cleetus’ exposure. The Bald Eagle fan base went wild over him. That’s also what happened when NASCAR put a live stream of his in-car camera on YouTube. At one point earlier this year, he broke 100k people watching him lead the ARCA ‘Dega race. During the race, he took the lead, and he cheered into the radio, “Be like Biff, Be like Biff.”
McFarland didn’t come into the sport wanting to jump through the ranks, and yeah, maybe NASCAR approved him too early. Without him, we wouldn’t be getting NASCAR drivers drifting Cadillacs in a parking lot.
Love him or hate him, Cleetus McFarland’s impact on NASCAR is unprecedented. If he plans to run a full season of ARCA next year, the Cleetus effect may only be getting started.