Cleetus McFarland admits he felt 'in way over my head' on NASCAR series debut

Cleetus McFarland

Cleetus McFarland admits he felt 'in way over my head' on NASCAR series debut

McFarland made it to the end of his O'Reilly Series debut

Chris Deeley

Sunday 5 April 2026 11:48

Cleetus McFarland has given his own take on his NASCAR O'Reilly Series debut, after a tough afternoon at Rockingham.

The YouTuber insisted that he had achieved his main goal by simply finishing the race, albeit after coming just inches from wrecking his car when he spun out in the final stage to bring out a caution.

McFarland also got three wide early in the race and got sideways, fortunate not to cause a big wreck as he saved the slide.

The Richard Childress Racing driver finished the race six laps down, admitting he 'got his ass kicked', but claimed to have learned a lot in his first full race in NASCAR – discounting the five laps he ran in the Truck Series at Daytona before wrecking.

Cleetus McFarland: I wanted more from this race

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Speaking after the race, he said: “Did I ruin anyone’s day other than my own. I did not. This was one hell of an opportunity and I got my ass kicked but I finished the race. That was our goal.

“So we did meet our goals. We did have higher expectations, or higher wants — I think we got to 26th for a minute and I was like so excited just to hear that that literally the next corner I went in and spun out because I was just going too danged fast for my own abilities.”

"At that moment I was like, 'I have put myself in the worst position I could possibly be in right now', and 'I am way in over my head'. But I knew we just had to get to the end and that's what we did."

He continued: “I was already way back in the field, I got behind Jesse Love when he was saving tires. And I could catch him, but just watching his line, I was like, ‘Shoot, I’ve been doing that wrong all day'. Learned so much and the guys were helping me a lot on the radios. It was great.

“I mean I think I spun out 50 times, almost died 10 times. And overall I’m here with a car that’s not destroyed. I didn’t ruin anyone’s day, which was my main goal. I did want to stay out of the news more. You know, Dale Jr. said, ‘Please, stay out of the news'. That was my goal. But several times I just over-drove the corner, and then the one time I lost it and caused a caution.”

NASCAR NASCAR Xfinity Series Cleetus McFarland