Garrett Mitchell, the YouTube creator who races as Cleetus McFarland, will not be on the grid for the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. NASCAR officials have declined to approve his entry into the series' visit to the 2.66-mile Alabama venue, citing the need for him to log more short-track and intermediate time before being cleared for a superspeedway in the second-tier category.
McFarland, who runs the Freedom Factory in Bradenton, Florida and counts millions of subscribers on YouTube, addressed the rejection during the build-up press conference at the track. "It is what it is," he told reporters. "RCR, when they got the news back from NASCAR, which we kind of expected based on my hectic drive at Rockingham, they were only approved for the shorter tracks. They really just looked at it as Nashville's probably a safe bet considering the slower speeds and the turns."
The Nashville Superspeedway visit next month will now serve as McFarland's second O'Reilly Auto Parts Series start, replacing the Talladega plan. "It aligned with my schedule, Tommy's Express, it all aligned with them," McFarland said. "Hopefully if I do well in Nashville I can keep working my way up to bigger tracks and make it to Daytona in the spring."
McFarland is not leaving Alabama empty-handed. He is on the entry list for Saturday's ARCA Menards Series race, the Alabama Manufactured Housing 200, behind the wheel of the No. 30 BaldEagle.com Ford for Rette Jones Racing. It will be his third ARCA start of 2026, after races at Rockingham, Hickory and a 20th-place finish at Kansas where a crimped oil line ended his run.
McFarland's best friend George Sicilian, known online as LS George or Squirrel McNutt, will line up alongside him in the No. 0 Heatwave Visuals Ford. It marks the third week running the pair have raced together, but their first chance to work as superspeedway drafting partners. Sicilian, just two short-track ARCA starts into his career, said the Talladega experience felt counter-intuitive after his recent runs.
"My first ever time doing it in a real car was just now, five laps," Sicilian said. "So far Rockingham is my favourite track. Ten times scarier than Talladega, I have to say, because you have to trust that the car is going to make the turn. Here, you don't lift, you're just turning left and going fast. It's the most American thing on planet Earth."
McFarland confirmed the Kansas mechanical failure was traced back to an outside vendor. "The team does not crimp the oil lines in this situation," he explained. "The oil line was crimped by a third party, and based on what I saw it just looked like it was improperly crimped, just not fully seated in the fitting. After 70 laps, it just couldn't hold 80 PSI and blew all the oil out."
Saturday's ARCA Menards Series race is the largest field at Talladega since 2012, with 41 teams entered for 36 owner-points-locked spots and four qualifying-set positions. Joe Gibbs Racing's Gio Ruggiero, who has back-to-back wins at Daytona and Kansas, starts on pole and is chasing a third straight victory in the series. Bobby Earnhardt and the five-car Nitro Motorsports group are among the names tipped to challenge in a race that has not produced a repeat winner in 19 straight visits.
McFarland's longer-term goal remains a Daytona 500 entry. With NASCAR keen on a measured progression and McFarland comfortable with their pace, the YouTube-to-stock-car experiment is being run very deliberately.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/cleetus-mcfarland-talladega-arca-2026-nascar-oreilly-denied-rcr). Visit for full coverage.*