The Cleetus McFarland Effect: YouTuber Brings 70,000 Viewers to ARCA Talladega Race

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Alex Harrington is a contributing sports writer located in the West Midlands, England. His focus is on F1, NASCAR, and the technology behind the sport. Alex joined Newsweek in March, 2024, having previously written for DriveTribe, Men’s Journal, and Sports Illustrated. He is a graduate of the Open University with a BA (Hons) degree in Business. You can get in touch with Alex by emailing,  a.**********@******ek.com. You can find him on X @AlexOnRacing.

Alex Harrington

Sports Contributing Writer

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Cleetus McFarland, the popular automotive YouTuber whose real name is Garrett Mitchell, finished in an impressive P10 in the ARCA Menards Series at Talladega. Equally impressive was the viewership the driver brought to the race, with his onboards boasting 70,000 live viewers.

Driving at the General Tire 200 at Talladega Superspeedway, the driver proved once again that his place in the sport is entirely warranted.

His race was a difficult one. Starting in 24th behind the wheel of the No. 30 Ford for Rette Jones Racing, the car threw a valve spring on the fifth lap, meaning he was fighting the pack with less power.

“About lap five, we broke a valve spring, and Elmore just came over here and popped the valve cover off,” Mitchell said following his top-10 finish. “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.'”

With a focus on staying in the draft of the cars ahead, he was able to mitigate his power loss while waiting out the inevitable incidents that would take out a lot of his competition.

“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,” Mitchell said. “We just held on, and enough people wrecked and made mistakes (that) we were able to finish number 10.”

According to those watching on social media, including BrakeHard on X (formerly Twitter), there were 70,000 viewers with their eyes on the YouTuber.

“10th place finish for Cleetus McFarland! 70k viewers watching his in-car camera on NASCAR’s YouTube channel. Big content weekend for NASCAR/ARCA,” they posted.

This happened on his series debut earlier this year as his post-race interview with FOX Sports racked up over 5.8 million views.

The driver avoided a wreck during this week’s race, and in the resulting interview, described what happened through his shining personality.

“That was because my sleeves are cut off. I was able to make that maneuver. Tucked one of my wings, and just… dodged right out of there, said, ‘Hell no, brother. You ain’t taking me out’, and slid in for a number 10 finish.”

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