NASCAR Legend Greg Biffle, Former Driver Max Papis & Fans Celebrated With McFarland Post-Race
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Automotive YouTube star Garrett Mitchell (Cleetus McFarland) took a big step forward in his ARCA Menards Series career at Talladega Superspeedway. He completed all 77 laps of the General Tire 200 on Saturday (April 26) and earned a top-10 finish for his trouble.
The Bradenton, Fla., native overcame gremlins that popped up before the race even began, citing a valve train issue as the reason for his slow start. However, McFarland was able to maneuver around the field and avoid what few cautions flew to take home a respectable finish in his second ARCA start. In fact, McFarland said that he drove most of the race on just seven cylinders.
“About lap five, we broke a valve spring, and Elmore just came over here and popped the valve cover off,” McFarland said. “… Obviously, you just can’t change that in the race, so they told us after we pulled in, ‘The valve train’s rattling, go see what it’ll do.’
“You know how a bald eagle flies sometimes in a group? Well, I don’t think they fly in groups. … You know how geese fly in groups? That’s what we had to do out [there].”
McFarland somehow hung onto the lead draft or somewhat close to it throughout the 200-mile event. It was good enough to leave him in position to capitalize when a last-lap wreck saw a number of cars in front of the No. 30 crashing out.
“I just knew that if I fell out of the draft, I was done, and I just tried to channel my inner Greg Biffle and get in there,” McFarland added. “We just held on, and enough people wrecked and made mistakes (that) we were able to finish No. 10.”
McFarland finished 30th in his first start in the series earlier this year at Daytona International Speedway after being collected in a slew of crashes throughout the race. This time out, he kept his nose clean on Friday (April 25), avoided the wrecks and came home with a more than respectable finish, beating out several series regulars in the process.
“I saw them getting tangled up, and I said, ‘Wait a second, this time I’m going to zag,’ and I zagged to the left, zigged back straight, dodged it like it was nothing,” McFarland said of the final-lap incident. “So, I was actually really jacked about that.”
In terms of crowd support, the McFarland effect was real. McFarland was greeted by a whole posse of people after climbing out the car, including retired drivers Biffle and Max Papis. NASCAR streamed McFarland’s in-car camera on its YouTube page, and the stream peaked at over 60,000 viewers.
“He’s just a badass racecar driver, that he fakes to be a YouTuber.” Papis told Frontstretch. “I don’t think he’s the opposite. … He’s an amazing person outside the car, inside the car. … Just wanted to give him my support and my love.”
McFarland has tipped his hand at running more races this season, including at Bristol Motor Speedway, but no official announcement has been made regarding his future schedule.
Dalton Hopkins also contributed to the reporting on this article.
Tanner Marlar is a staff writer for Sports Illustrated’s OnSI Network, a contributor for TopSpeed.com, an AP Wire reporter, an award-winning sports columnist and talk show host and master's student at Mississippi State University. Soon, Tanner will be pursuing a PhD. in Mass Media Studies. Tanner began working with Frontstretch as an Xfinity Series columnist in 2022.