Garret Mitchell, better known as Cleetus McFarland, has brought new attention to NASCAR and the ARCA Menards Series. A deep dive into the numbers shows that Mitchell is bringing new eyes to the sport and his own brand as well.
While YouTuber Garret Mitchell’s time in NASCAR has been brief, the manner in which the sport props the 30-year-old car enthusiast up has obviously drawn its fair share of haters.
NASCAR fans, often timid about allowing outsiders into their circle, have wondered if NASCAR only cares for the attention brought by Mitchell, who has a massive 4.29 million subscribers on his channel, Cleetus McFarland. Yet, when Mitchell ran his first ARCA Menards Series race at Daytona in February, the sport itself welcomed him with open arms.
NASCAR even collaborated with Mitchell to create a live in-car camera that would be on YouTube during the race. Even after he crashed early on, Mitchell was perhaps the first ARCA driver to hop in the FOX booth post-wreck to talk about his experience.
However, with his appearance at Talladega last weekend, the talk of the town was once again the attention he brought alongside him, including multiple collaborations with NASCAR Media, all hoping to gain from his inclusion in their productions.
After Daytona, fans had dubbed his presence “the Cleetus McFarland Effect,” but just how strong has his impact been, and could his ARCA efforts help both himself and NASCAR? Let’s take a look at the numbers behind the “Cleetus McFarland Effect.”
During his short debut in the ARCA Menards Series Ride the ‘dente 200, Mitchell’s in-car camera on the NASCAR YouTube Channel exploded and, at press time, sits at 780,159 views. But his true effect would not be seen till days after the race when news broke that the race scored 1.160 million viewers, the most-watched ARCA Daytona race since 2013.
This bump in viewership was partially thanks to the race’s slot on “Big FOX,” which was given to the series prior to McFarland or even Hélio Castroneves entering the race. However, McFarland’s impact was clear, as clips of his now infamous quote of “Rippin’ around Daytona like a bald eagle” even circulated outside normal NASCAR circles.
According to Social Blade, by the end of February, the NASCAR YouTube channel had jumped from January’s 1.330 million subscribers to 1.380 million. This means that after roughly gaining 10,000 to 30,000 new subscribers a month in 2024, the sport dropped to 50,000 from January to February.
Some could say there is little correlation to the “Cleetus McFarland Effect” present in these numbers. Still, during his second race at Talladega this past weekend, the NASCAR YouTube channel again leaped, gaining roughly 20,000 subscribers that Saturday.
Once again, his live in-car camera on the NASCAR YouTube Channel had over 70,000 viewers at one point. This alone is good news for NASCAR, as getting new eyes on the product is great, but the question remains: is Mitchell seeing any gains from NASCAR’s viewers?
Mitchell’s gains are clear via his YouTube stats as well.
During his ARCA Menards Series debut, Mitchell’s pre-race uploads, “The Start of my NASCAR Career” and “NASCAR Put Me On Probation, Here’s Why,” garnered 1.8 and 2 million views apiece, respectively. While a massive number, this is typical for the Cleetus McFarland YouTube Channel.
Even his latest ARCA video, “Talladega ARCA 200 – Insane Finish With a Broken Engine! (we got LUCKY),” currently has just 1.3 million views. But his non-racing videos, in which he collabs with Dale Earnhardt Jr., have set the bar. His video at Talladega with Earnhardt, titled “Dale Jr. Drives the Dale Truck! (blew his mind), scored 2.1 million views and has only been up for a little over two weeks.
Another video titled Meeting Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Touring his Race Shop, after his appearance on the Dale Jr. Download and uploaded to his secondary channel, Cleetus2 McFarland, is the channel’s ninth most watched video, at 1.1 million views.
The true magnitude of Mitchell’s growth since January is seen in his subscriber count.
According to Social Blade, in January, the month in which ARCA tested at Daytona, he gained 60,000 subscribers; in February, 80,000 subscribers; and in April, Mitchell added another 60,000 subscribers. Mitchell ended January with 4.110 million subscribers and is currently at 4.29 million, which is not bad for a few months.
Obviously, NASCAR and Mitchell have both seen some impressive gains in attention since the start of this indirect symbiotic relationship. This growth has spilled over beyond these two and into the broader NASCAR landscape.
We have already talked about the bump in viewership for NASCAR on FOX and the views his video has gained on social media, but what about the rest of the NASCAR media scene?
Mitchell has appeared on numerous NASCAR podcasts at this point. His interview on Corey LaJoie’s Stacking Pennies is currently the show’s second-most-watched episode on YouTube.
Mitchell’s recent interview with Kevin Harvick on FOX Sports’ Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour from May 1 is already the podcast’s most-watched episode on YouTube, with over 350k views.
Mitchell has even topped the charts on perhaps the most popular NASCAR YouTube Channel, as his post-Daytona interview on the Dale Jr Download is the most viewed full-length episode on the Dirty Mo Media YouTube Channel and the third most watched video overall at 1.8 million views.
Whether fans like it or not, Mitchell’s time in NASCAR is drawing numbers and attention for the driver, the sport, and NASCAR media. As he continues his journey through NASCAR, these numbers may only continue to grow.
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Another race weekend in the books. While Ryan Blaney battled back from several pit road setbacks to win his second straight race at Phoenix, other drivers were much to be desired. It was a big win for Penske but for several others, they leave the first “real” race of the season scratching their head with a lot that they need to figure out. Here are the biggest losers of NASCAR’s Spring 2026 Phoenix race weekend.
I’m afraid that this is starting to be habitual. Another race weekend at RCR for Kyle Busch, another terrible result. Well, the finish wasn’t exactly awful. While 17th is hardly up to Kyle’s standards, it’s about as good as it gets anymore for the two-time champion who hasn’t won a race in nearly a hundred starts.
To start things off, there was a reason to be cautiously optimistic about the future of that RCR No. 8 Chevy. New crew chief. Personnel changes. A new Chevy body. He even scored the pole for the 68th running of the Daytona 500 last month. But, since then, it has been a sharp slope downward. He was mostly a non-factor in the first three races. And, today, it seemed like the No. 8 Chevy was out to lunch. They unloaded slow. They qualified in the back of the pack. And, before Stage 1 even ended, Kyle was running 34th with no apparent issues and went a lap down to leader Ryan Blaney. To add insult to injury, Kyle Bush had a tire go down on him three times today. More than any other driver. It appears to be back to the drawing board for team No. 8.
You could say that the Hendrick No. 48 team had a rough weekend in general. But I think it would be more accurate to say that the entire start to 2026 has been catastrophic. Heading into today’s race, even with Bowman starting the first three races of the season, the No. 48 team was 36th in points, last among all full-time drivers. Even Cody Ware was ahead of him. If that’s not bad, I don’t know what is.
To rub salt in the wound, their driver missed today at Phoenix due to showing symptoms of vertigo. So, Anthony Alfredo was into sub and…it went about as well as you’d expect. He went a lap down early and never recovered. He got caught up in the incident involving Joey Logano and DNF’d. Officially, they scored a 33rd finishing position. This is the worst start Bowman could ever imagine, considering that he’s in a contract year.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I’ve lost my marbles. “Come on, dude! Penske just swept the weekend! How can they be losers?” Hear me out. Let’s start first with the two other Penske drivers, shall we? Joey Logano caused not one, but two multi-car pileups, one involving his Penske teammate, Austin Cindric. Cars were utterly destroyed. Before that, both Cindric and Logano were running solidly in the top 10.
So, it’s not for a lack of speed that they make our Biggest Losers list. The reason they’re listed here is that a lot of their problems today, if not all of them, were self-inflicted. Logano was driving sloppily and that took out Cindric. And even race winner Ryan Blaney almost lost this race on pit road numerous times. Rookie mistakes by the pit crew constantly had him charging from behind. Pit road penalties. He was like a yo-yo going back and forth throughout the field. What saved him in the end was that, on that last restart, Blaney took two tires and Christopher Bell took 4. If that had not happened, it is extremely possible that Blaney ultimately would have lost the race and it would have been because of their numerous mistakes in the pits.
They got lucky this week. They probably won’t get that lucky again. They need to clean up those nagging, senseless mistakes.
Ole, Danny boy. If Alex Bowman’s seat is the hottest in the series, Daniel Suarez has to be the second hottest in the garage. That No. 7 car has been a revolving door of drivers for the last several years and it looks like Suarez is shaping up to be Spire’s latest victim. It’s the same old story with the team: they show impressive speed in qualifying and even early on in the race. But rarely do they ever put a full race together. That criticism isn’t just for Suarez, it applies to the team across the board.
But Carson Hocevar is the team’s golden child. He’s not going anywhere. And the team seems pretty high on Michael McDowell at the moment. That leaves Suarez looking like the odd man out, a seat-warmer, if you will. He needs to perform. And, he’s done well to start, admittedly. But he qualified 5th for today’s race. He even earned a few stage points in the opening stage. Then, he faltered and left the race with an unceremonious whimper. Ultimately, after he was no longer a factor, he was caught up in a mid-race wreck. He finished 30th. That’s a tough pill to swallow for the Mexican-born driver. If he wants to keep his ride next year, he needs to show stark improvement in the coming weeks. I have a strong feeling that that ride is about to be a highly sought-after commodity once silly season rolls around.
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The first checkered flag of the 2026 rendition of the NASCAR West Coast Swing (as abbreviated as it is) has officially flown. It was an exciting race, full of close, tight-cornered racing, a plethora of tire issues littered throughout, and a couple of heartbreaking, hard hits. Surviving it all was Ryan Blaney, who captured the flag in the Straight Talk 500 at Phoenix Raceway. He survived pit road mishaps and passed a total of 49 cars to win the race today. It marks his 18th career victory, sweeping the weekend for Team Penske. So, for Blaney and Team Penske, the race was the highest of highs. Not everyone escaped unscathed, though. Here are the key takeaways from NASCAR’s spring date at Phoenix.
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Following a relatively clean first stage, Stage number 2 and beyond was littered with cautions. Most of these cautions were a result of tires going down after only about 20 laps or so of use. But the caution on Lao 216 was purely driver error. Joey Logano, who was running 7th at the time, made a move down on the apron approaching the finish line. Chaos ensued. Here’s what happened.
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