UPDATE: Cleetus McFarland Will Race in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series This Year
What’s Happening? YouTube star-turned-NASCAR driver Garrett Mitchell, best known by his online persona Cleetus McFarland, has signed a part-time deal to…
As NASCAR’s offseason has rolled on, its most popular driver has been notably absent from many mainstream conversations. He’s not washed up, he’s a threat to win races in 2024, but he’s not the one driving conversations among fans. What is it that has caused Elliott’s brief fall from mainstream NASCAR relevance, and will he return to that prominence in 2024?
Elliott’s story begins with talking about his 2023 Cup Series season. It was a difficult one featuring him breaking his leg while skiing the week after the second race of the season. Elliott being off the track for those weeks caused many to attribute NASCAR’s early season TV ratings slump to his absence.
The “Chase Elliott Effect,” as it was called, saw NASCAR Cup Series races take a major drop in TV viewership compared to 2022. It was so bad that NASCAR heavily promoted Elliott’s return when he came back at Martinsville. They even went so far as to make an entire commercial about it that fans can watch here.
Eventually, though, he was back on the track, and NASCAR’s TV ratings stabilized somewhat after he returned. Martinsville, his first race back, saw a slight uptick in TV viewers. However, it did not solve NASCAR’s problem, as 24 of 38 races still saw a decrease in TV viewership.
Then came possibly the biggest blow to his reputation. Elliott was suspended for one race after intentionally wrecking Denny Hamlin during the Coca-Cola 600.
Before this, he was NASCAR’s Golden Boy who was seen as the undisputed face of the sport amongst the fanbase. This incident was a major dent in that reputation. This dent was by no means a death sentence to his career, but, Elliott’s promotional reputation was tainted.
On the track, he was performing fine overall, but, he was not winning races. He never led more than 18 laps in a race during the Regular Season, and that overall performance caused him to miss the Playoffs.
This all came to a head at Watkins Glen when he ran out of fuel after a critical miscalculation by crew chief Alan Gustafson. While this was not the sole reason he missed the Playoffs, it was the perfect representation of his frustrating season.
Now out of the Drivers Playoffs, Elliott was not relevant in the NASCAR world throughout the Playoffs. He had some good races including leading 47 laps at Kansas and 83 laps at Martinsville, but since he was not in the Playoffs, he wasn’t as heavily promoted as he had been early in the season.
However, yet another incident happened during the Playoffs at Kansas. Elliott door slammed teammate and Playoff contender Kyle Larson on pit road. Afterward, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio’s Danielle Trotta made scathing comments about Elliott, calling out his poor decision-making throughout the season. This set off another firestorm of bad publicity surrounding Elliott’s reputation and etiquette as a teammate.
In the offseason, Elliott has remained relatively quiet. This was not necessarily unexpected. He is not quite as active on social media as other drivers, and he does not make many headlines with interview comments.
He did surface to update his fans on the shoulder surgery he got in November. But this led to even more questions about how healthy he really was in 2023 given that he was dealing with a broken leg and a shoulder injury.
He won the Most Popular Driver Award for the 6th season in a row, so he was at the NASCAR Awards. Aside from this, he’s been radio silent.
Then came the Netflix docuseries, where Elliott (again, the sport’s most popular driver) was never even mentioned. It was as if he was invisible throughout the 2023 Playoffs. This was a bit of a surprise to some given how popular Elliott is amongst the fanbase.
As a result of all of this, the mainstream conversation surrounding NASCAR is not about Elliott. It’s about the stars of the Netflix docuseries like Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, and Ross Chastain. Hamlin in particular has garnered much conversation for the great access he gave the Netflix crews.
With all of this in mind, will Elliott find a way back into NASCAR’s mainstream once again?
The answer to that question is most likely a yes. At the end of the day, he is still the sport’s most popular driver, so he will become a part of the conversation by default. It’s not like he lost that fanbase overnight, despite him likely not gaining many new fans.
It’s also important to note that in 2023, Elliott performed better than people think he did. He finished 2023 with 15 top-10 finishes, which was more than Ross Chastain (14), Bubba Wallace (10), and Kevin Harvick (14). It was also just one fewer than Tyler Reddick (16) and Brad Keselowski (16).
Elliott’s average finish in 2023 was 13.1. If he kept that up and competed in all 36 races, that would have ranked 6th in the Cup Series. His average finish was better than the top-2 in the final standings, Ryan Blaney (14.1) and Kyle Larson (14.6). Elliott did all of this while missing 7 races.
Keep in mind that Elliott also had three consecutive Championship 4 appearances between 2020 and 2022.
Will he be the number one driver at Hendrick Motorsports? That is to be determined, and he has tough competition for that spot. William Byron had a career year in 2023, and Kyle Larson had made two of the last three Championship 4’s.
Chase Elliott is ready to put 2023 behind him. He has the talent and equipment to make 2024 a great season, but he has stiff competition within his team to contend with.
Garrett Mitchell, better known by his online persona Cleetus McFarland, says his 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule isn’t set in stone, something the YouTube star explained to Dale Earnhardt Jr on the latest episode of The Dale Jr Download.
One of the biggest surprises in recent NASCAR news is that YouTube star Cleetus McFarland, whose real name is Garrett Mitchell, will make his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut next month at Rockingham Speedway.
Mitchell, who has just won a NASCAR National Series start to his name, will make this start with Richard Childress Racing in their No. 33 car as part of a part-time development contract that will see him make starts in 2026 and 2027.
Per Mitchell, his contract will cover three races per season, though he hinted it could be more in a Facebook post. Nonetheless, fans are eagerly awaiting an official schedule of what other tracks Mitchell and RCR will tackle in 2026.
Unfortunately, fans will have to wait a little longer for this schedule, as the 30-year-old Floridian explained during a recent interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr, his 2026 schedule is still up in the air a month ahead of his first race.
During an interview on the latest episode of the Dale Jr Download, Mitchell told Earnhardt that while he plans to race the superspeedways after Rockingham, with his sights set on Talladega’s April 25 or October 24 race weekend, the decision lies in the hands of NASCAR.
“NASCAR said I cannot run Talladega unless I go to Rockingham first and do well,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell then clarified that while he will have a rookie test for Rockingham, the race at Rockingham will determine his eligibility to race at Talladega.
What’s Happening? YouTube star-turned-NASCAR driver Garrett Mitchell, best known by his online persona Cleetus McFarland, has signed a part-time deal to…
Mitchell, who has two ARCA starts at Daytona and one at Talladega, has already taken a rookie test this season at Rockingham for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Despite a minor crash during this test, Mitchell was cleared to race in the season-opening race at Daytona, crashing himself in a single truck spin five laps into the race, after a valiant qualifying effort.
Even with the barrier of Rockingham in the way, fans are already somewhat concerned about McFarland’s skills, given the result of his short time behind the wheel of a truck.
During this episode of The DJD, Mitchell expressed his intentions to work his way up the ladder and learn, but with the caveat that if an opportunity presents itself to him, he will take it, using the Daytona 500 and the NASCAR Cup Series as a metaphorical example.
“I don’t want to drive a Cup car right now. But, brother, if someone calls me and says, ‘We got a spot in a Cup car in the Daytona 500?’ I mean, what am I supposed to do?” — Cleetus McFarland
Despite his doubters, with the support of RCR and their developmental tools, Mitchell seems confident about the opportunity, already getting in some sim time with RCR.
Either way, no matter how much support he has in his corner, Mitchell is diving in headfirst once again with this opportunity.
What’s Happening? Despite his internet fame, Garrett Mitchell, by his screen name Cleetus McFarland, has recently taken to stock car racing…
What do you think about this? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Lionel has officially opened pre-orders for Garrett Mitchell’s (better known as Cleetus McFarland) first-ever NASCAR diecast.
What do you think about this? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
YouTube star-turned-NASCAR driver Garrett Mitchell, best known by his online persona Cleetus McFarland, has signed a part-time deal to race with Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for the next two seasons.
UPDATE 3:00 PM EST: Per RCR Mitchell will make his debut at Rockingham Speedway on April 4.
What’s Happening? Despite his internet fame, Garrett Mitchell, by his screen name Cleetus McFarland, has recently taken to stock car racing…
What do you think about this? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
