Thirty-year-old Cleetus McFarland has had an interesting transition in his career, going from a celebrated YouTuber to an ARCA Menards Series driver. He made his series debut at Daytona this year and has participated in three more races. His most recent appearance was at the Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday. One of the many impressed by him was Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar.
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After McFarland finished the race in 17th place after starting from 20th, Hocevar told the press, “I enjoy seeing his journey. We played iRacing or whatever. Kind of hit it off a little bit. I like to have fun, and I am jealous that he races Crown Vics as much as he does… I want to be successful on Sunday, but I envy his job of literally having fun every day.”
“I’m enjoying watching [Cleetus McFarland’s] journey.”@CarsonHocevar offered some tips to McFarland before his third start at Bristol.
Presenting Partner: @MyPlaceHotels pic.twitter.com/4cOLC5Eret— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) September 12, 2025
The Cup Series driver also lauded the YouTuber for his ability to get into the car and become adept at Bristol racing within one single race. Such praise proves that McFarland is far from some overenthusiastic man doing this solely for online views.
He had a great seat in the first crash of the race that occurred due to a collision between Andrew Patterson and Takuma Koga. He avoided that mishap and went on to have a largely dramaless race. He fell short by three laps and was battling for 15th place when an unexpected hurdle arose.
With more than 20 laps left, he suffered a tire failure and made contact with the wall. He came back to the pits without enforcing a caution, but fell four further laps behind the race leader. He returned to the race seven laps down.
Is McFarland trying to make a career in racing?
Earlier this year, McFarland finished in a solid 10th place at the Talladega Superspeedway. His performance that day impressed many. Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman were among that crowd. Bell had admitted to the press that he did not know much about the YouTuber or what kind of content he created. However, he was positive that such a character would be a breath of fresh air.
He added, “It’s refreshing whenever you get a guy like that. I don’t think he is trying to make a career out of this. Maybe one day he will, I don’t know. But he definitely does it in his own way, and I respect that.”
Bowman, too, shared similar thoughts. He said, “I think he is going about things the right way. He’s got a lot of people helping him.”
The common opinion about McFarland from all these stars is that he is an easy-going person who is a lot of fun to be around. NASCAR could use that jolliness in serious times like these.
