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For a while it was one of those “worst-kept secrets in NASCAR” but late last week the news broke officially. Garrett Mitchell, aka Cleetus McFarland, will be running the full ARCA schedule for Richard Childress Racing in 2027.
In trying to transition from a YouTube content creator to a driver, Mitchell has spent time in ARCA, the Craftsman Truck Series and the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
McFarland’s previous experience in NASCAR’s second and third tier series haven’t shown too much promise. This past season, he competed in the Trucks and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in five races in total. In three Truck Series races, he finished outside the Top 20 in all three races and was caught up in wrecks at Daytona and Talladega that limited him to 21 laps total between the two races. His best finish came at Michigan when he finished 25. In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, he drove for RCR in two races, finishing 32nd at Rockingham and 35th at Nashville.
However, in eight ARCA races in 2025-2026, he has three top 10s including a thrilling runner-up finish at Talladega this past spring. While there were certainly doubters about McFarland’s racing adventures being much more than social media content, he proved a lot of people wrong at Talladega by leading laps and remaining up front for much of the race.
While we all know that Talladega is a beast of its own nature, his fourth place finish at Rockingham bodes well that McFarland has some potential to be able to hold his own against ARCA veterans.
As someone who thinks that at least two full seasons in ARCA should be mandatory for any NASCAR driver before moving up to the Truck Series, I am happy to see McFarland has decided to go about his NASCAR career the right way. I was critical of Richard Childress Racing’s decision to give him a ride in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at this stage of his career.
I also applaud McFarland to obviously have taken stock of his experience in NASCAR, realized that if he was going to seriously pursue a career in the sport, he had to walk before he could run. Going full-time in the ARCA Series in 2027 will give McFarland a much better handle on what it takes to run competitive stock cars. At the same time, it will show all the nay-sayers that he’s serious about paying his dues and honing his skills. This will allow him to prove that this isn’t just a fun pastime. It will also ensure that when he returns to the Craftsman Truck and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and perhaps eventually goes to the Cup Series, he’ll do so with substantial experience under his belt.
Meanwhile, the addition of Cleetus McFarland gives the ARCA Series another colourful character in a series with lots of drivers to get behind and cheer for. If the ARCA Series benefits Cleetus McFarland in his career, his presence will also benefit the Series.
One caveat I need to add: Recently I stated that I was happy to see Joe Gibbs Racing closing down their ARCA operations. I believed that having a big-name Cup team dominating the series was a setback to the development of the young and newcomer drivers. It’s no secret that I am biased towards Richard Childress Racing but if I’m going to say that JGR’s dominance is a detriment to ARCA I have to say the same about RCR’s involvement in the series. I’m excited to see what Cleetus McFarland can bring to the ARCA Series and how it will help his career going forward. However, the last thing I want to see is the same car dominating every time I tune in to an ARCA race. After a while, even Cleetus driving away from the field and putting cars a lap down 20 laps into the race won’t be beneficial to the future of the sport as a whole.
