NASCAR on TV this week
Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain and Daniel Hemric are four-wide for the lead during the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, 10/6/2024 (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

4 Burning Questions: Will Cleetus McFarland Success Lead to a NASCAR Start?

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Is fuel saving here to stay?

In the fourth full season of Next Gen racing, similar topics arise at similar tracks. Heading to Talladega Superspeedway this weekend, NASCAR Cup Series buzz remains around the same two main points we’ve seen at this track type since 2022: fuel saving and two-wide gridlock.

The fuel saving takes place throughout the race until teams are able to stop and take enough gas to make it to the next stage break. Once they have enough, the gloves come off halfway through the final stage.

While it’s not a popular style of racing for drivers, it passes the eye test for many fans. A few miles-per-hour slower each lap is hard to spot on the television screen, especially when guys are saving fuel while running four wide.

While drivers have expressed some thoughts on how to keep teams from thinking only about fuel, I wouldn’t expect many changes Sunday (April 27). Unfortunately, fuel saving is here to stay, although I don’t think it’ll have an effect on the way fans enjoy the race.

When it comes to superspeedway racing, tires mean very little. In stage racing, teams only change all four tires when they pit under yellow at stage breaks.

It’s always been important to minimize time on pit road, but with track position so important — considering little difference among cars, drivers and teams in terms of speed — this strategy has turned into a game to save as much fuel as possible to save a few tenths of a second on a splash and go.

Now that teams have discovered this strategy, it will stay in their book of tricks to try as they strategize. After all, that pesky gridlock is in play; in a three-wide, 12-deep draft, coming out nine to 10 cars ahead out of the pits could make the difference in someone fighting their way to the front.

“The fuel mileage is here to stay,” Michael McDowell said Saturday (April 26). “If you can shorten up your pit stop, it’s going to gain you track position later. I mean it just is. It’s going to be a part of what we do.”

Two-time and most-recent Talladega winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. reiterated likewise.

“No matter what, I think people are going to save fuel and try and make your pit stop as short as possible,” Stenhouse said.

That element of fuel savings will be here to stay, because the car back in 20th naturally has to use less throttle to keep up than the car in the lead, therefore giving those cars further back a fuel savings edge. 

Stenhouse at least pointed out that gas mileage has long been a part of superspeedway racing, harkening back to the times when the field would line up single file around the top.

“At least for the fans, we’re three and four wide here,” Stenhouse said.

How will Spire Motorsports and the No. 7 car perform without Rodney Childers?

Possibly the most surprising story coming out of the off week dropped on Thursday (April 24), when Spire Motorsports announced Rodney Childers would no longer crew chief the No. 7 car driven by Justin Haley.

The entire Spire organization has definitely improved its speed to start the 2025 season, leading the charts in practice sessions and qualifying well. For the most part, that speed hasn’t carried over to the race on Sunday. But the team finally put an impressive showing together at Bristol Motor Speedway just two weeks ago.

While the Bristol speed made the departure even more shocking (Haley ran 13th), the drivers at Spire Motorsports weren’t surprised by the change.

“It was just a fit thing,” Haley said. “To compete on a Sunday in the Cup Series, everything has to be perfect. If one little thing is not perfect, you’re not going to be able to win races, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Haley also indicated he did not have a say in the decision. He does have familiarity with his new crew chief, Ryan Sparks, going back to the end of last season when Haley first stepped into the No. 7.

“This is just another aggressive strategic move by them,” Carson Hocevar said, speaking of his team owner’s decision to move on from Childers.

When asked if he could see it coming, Hocevar added, “We all could.”

While Childers certainly brought a lot of knowledge and experience to Spire Motorsports in his short stint there, these quotes make it clear the on-track performance had nothing to do with the decision to part ways.

Will it disrupt this middle-tier team’s momentum? Probably not. Spire Motorsports has continued to grow and improve as an organization with each passing year, and Childers wasn’t the only person the team brought in during the offseason. 

At the very least, it’ll be hard to analyze the decision this weekend, as superspeedways put teams like Spire in contention to win. It’s going to be a couple of weeks until we see how this one shakes out.

See also
2-Headed Monster: Was Parting Ways with Rodney Childers the Right Move for Spire?

Did NASCAR make the right call in the Xfinity finish?

It looked like the NASCAR Xfinity Series was set for another great finish at Talladega, but officials had to make two crucial calls on the final lap that wound up determining the finish.

For starters, NASCAR made the call to throw the yellow when Connor Zilisch slammed into the backstretch wall on the last lap. 

I’m of the opinion that the crash — being a single-car incident — was far enough down the backstretch that the leaders could have raced back to the line. There was enough space between the finish line and the scene to let it go, especially since Zilisch was the only car involved.

However, you can clearly understand the thought process in the race control tower. And in hindsight, considering the violence of Zilisch’s impact, you can see why the caution was thrown.

When Zilisch spun, the pack kept racing. The yellow lights didn’t start blinking until after the No. 88 made wall contact. Once the yellow did come out, though, NASCAR had to make another call. Jesse Love had clearly lost the lead, but Jeb Burton and Austin Hill were side by side.

Ultimately, Hill was declared the winner, while Burton finished second. 

In an incredibly raw and emotional moment on pit road, Burton maintained he had the lead. He continued looking at a photo, making the case for why it shows he was in front.

“We don’t have a lot of chances to win,” Burton told The CW, his voice breaking. “That’s what’s frustrating.”

Burton had a fast car all day, but despite his efforts to point out the photo, NASCAR appeared to make the right call here.

The roof camera view Burton pointed to was shot from an angle where the cars were slightly tilted away. At that angle, two cars beside each other means one of them is actually ahead. You also have to take into account the banking, which further messes with the visual perception of the photo.

The best way to tell who is in front is by using the lines on the racetrack. Each dash is the same length, painted parallel to the one next to it. Drawing a line using the dashes, the wall, and the yellow lines show that Hill was in front, even if it was by a small margin.

It’s a very tough way to lose a race. However, there shouldn’t be any overreactions to once again try and change more last-lap rules.

Should Cleetus McFarland get a NASCAR opportunity?

Technically, this one is an ARCA Menards Series topic. But Garrett Mitchell, who is more commonly known as Cleetus McFarland, was a hot topic in the Talladega garage, especially after finishing in the top 10 down a cylinder in the ARCA race Saturday. Before the ARCA race, a few Cup drivers commented on McFarland at the racetrack.

“It’s refreshing whenever you get a guy like that,” Christopher Bell said. “He definitely does it his own way, and I respect that.”

“I’ve been around him enough to know that he can obviously drive a racecar,” Alex Bowman said. “I feel like he’s going about things the right way, and he’s got a lot of people helping him and obviously has the car control and the knowledge to do it.”

After the race, Max Papis, who was at the track to support McFarland, joked, “He’s a really good racecar driver that fakes it as a YouTuber.”

While it’s unclear whether McFarland will try to make a career out of racing, he did indicate in his post-race television interview that he wanted to try and return to Talladega in the fall somehow, which brings in a few mixed feelings. 

McFarland only has two stock car starts — both at superspeedways — and he hasn’t had the opportunity to be competitive, crashing at Daytona International Speedway and being hampered by engine troubles at Talladega.

For a guy that already doesn’t have much of a stock car background, jumping to a truck — or even a Xfinity car — is a big difference from running an ARCA race with no live pit stops and a very spread-out field of cars.

Fall Talladega will also be a very important race in determining who will have a shot to race for the championship.

At the same time, drivers have to have opportunities to prove themselves, and the superspeedways are often the best places to be able to hop in any car and have a shot to be competitive. 

See also
Automotive YouTube Sensation Cleetus McFarland Earns Top 10 at Talladega

Running an ARCA car at a superspeedway has also been a rite of passage, even for world-renown international drivers like Shane van Gisbergen and Helio Castroneves trying to break into a NASCAR field.

McFarland happens to have a large following — over 60,000 fans alone watched his ARCA in-car stream — but that’s not all he brings to the table. You saw the comments from fellow drivers; people do respect his racecraft.

I would love to see McFarland in an ARCA car a few more times, especially on non-superspeedways. Maybe getting him in a truck at Talladega this fall would be too much, but having McFarland in a NASCAR top three series event should definitely be allowed to happen at some point in the future. 

Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!

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