By David Morgan, Associate Editor
After making his debut in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series last weekend at Rockingham, Garrett Mitchell, aka Cleetus McFarland, will have to wait a bit longer to make his superspeedway debut in the series.
McFarland signed a two-year development contract with Richard Childress Racing earlier this year with the hopes of running his No. 33 Chevrolet at Talladega on April 25, but NASCAR officials did not give him the green light to do so, limiting him to tracks one mile in length or less.
After a handful of ARCA starts, McFarland made his Truck Series debut at Daytona, which ended prematurely after crashing out in the opening laps, leading into his opportunity with RCR in the O’Reilly Series at Rockingham.
McFarland started 35th in the race, and found himself involved in a number of incidents throughout the day, including a spin on Lap 206 to bring out the caution. Nonetheless, McFarland brought his car home in one piece, finishing the day in 32nd place, six laps down.
“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,” McFarland said in a video posted to social media.
“Made my O’Reilly 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 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, but in O’Reilly, I am still limited to short tracks.”
NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, John Probst, provided the point of view from the sanctioning body on the latest episode of the Hauler Talk podcast, explaining that they haven’t seen enough yet to grant McFarland approval for the superspeedways.
“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,” Probst noted.
“When you look at just sort of the process that we go through and when a driver comes to NASCAR and they want to get approved through our three national series, most of the time, it’s with the ultimate goal of racing Cup. But not always.
“We have a driver committee that goes through and looks at their resume and the sets forth in front of them a driver plan that shows them how to get from point A to point B.
“And I think that right now when you look at Cleetus, he’s done some ARCA races, he’s done one Truck race and then obviously this weekend and the O’Reilly start.
“He is approved right now for O’Reilly Series short tracks, which means he’s good for all of ARCA, all of truck, and then O’Reilly up through the short tracks.
“Right now, we’d like to see more out of Cleetus in the short tracks. So, as of right now, we’re not saying no to Talladega, but there is more that we would like to see out of Cleetus before we would approve him for Talladega coming up here in a couple of weeks”
McFarland took the denial in stride, acknowledging that he is early into his NASCAR career and does need more seat time to learn the ropes, adding that more starts will only help him in the long run.
“All in all, this opportunity landed about two months ago and we came up with the idea of running a superspeedway. It’s not like we’ve been planning this for a year. I’ve only been racing NASCAR for one year,” said McFarland.
“It was never my mission to go out and climb in an O’Reilly car and get to the top as fast as I can. 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 car, an ARCA car, or a truck. More windshield time is going to help me. I’ve 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’ve just got to get out there in the other cars and do as much learning as possible. And then hopefully I’ll get to run Daytona and Talladega next year.”
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