This weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, YouTube star Cleetus McFarland will make his second-ever start in NASCAR’s fourth-tier division: the ARCA Racing Series. His first came at fellow drafting track Daytona International Speedway earlier this year, where his in-car live stream on YouTube has nearly 800,000 views — almost as many as the TV broadcast itself.
That weekend in Daytona, the NASCAR world learned in real time how much pull McFarland has. It was fascinating to watch.
McFarland, whose real name is Garrett Mitchell, has nearly 4.3 million subscribers on YouTube. His video persona is popularly traced back to a 90-second, decade-old YouTube upload from 1320 Video, where “Cleetus McFarland” is a character with a 3,000-horsepower Chevrolet Camaro. The description is one sentence: “Bless his red, white, and blue heart, Cleetus is one of the most American race-car drivers we’ve met.”
Mitchell went to law school but started posting on YouTube as Cleetus McFarland, and in 2020, he posted a video titled: “Dropped Out of Law School to Become a Professional Redneck…” He said in the video that he took out student loans for law school, filmed videos after class, and made money from 1320 Video.
Even if you’re unfamiliar with his persona, you can tell the law-school video feels very Garrett, not Cleetus. The redneck accent and volume are toned down, and it’s more laid back than his usual antics (which, right now, include taking $5,000 busted RVs to Talladega for the race).
Mitchell owns a racetrack in Florida called the Freedom Factory, and he showed up to Daytona with less fanfare from the NASCAR side than I expected. Popular non-NASCAR personalities have and do compete in NASCAR — like Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz, action-sports legend Travis Pastrana, longtime racer Hailie Deegan — but it was wild to see how the coverage of Mitchell snowballed as the Daytona race went on.
He yelled recaps of wrecks to his in-car camera mid-race, and once he got wrecked out, his interview with Fox Sports’ Kaitlyn Vincie went viral.
“Well, I was having the best day of my life, ripping around Daytona like a bald eagle,” he told her. “I was flat out. Avoided a wreck, which was awesome. I thought I was the best driver to ever exist in that moment. It was probably because my sleeves were cut off that I was able to pull off that maneuver.” (His sleeves were not cut off at the time, because that would be against NASCAR rules, but they were by the time he got invited into the booth to help commentate the latter parts of the race.)
The interview was typical Cleetus. But it was atypical for NASCAR, and during it, you can hear laughs around Mitchell. It wasn’t what people normally hear.
For this weekend’s ARCA race at Talladega, which airs Saturday afternoon, Fox Sports told me that Mitchell will be part of the show. He’ll have an onboard camera just like Daytona, and the broadcast will talk to him before the race. They’ll also radio him mid-race while he’s in the car, if he doesn’t get wrecked out and time permits. Fox said they understand the following Mitchell brings, which was evident when his Daytona interview and sleeveless booth visit went viral.
I scrolled back a year on the Cleetus McFarland YouTube channel and only found two videos with less than a million views, and both were in the 900,000 range. The ARCA Daytona race did 1.16 million views, which was the best viewership for the race in a decade, while Mitchell’s in-car stream sits at 778,000 views on YouTube.
Mitchell’s participation was such a hit that he went on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast after the race, and also recently gifted him some swans for his home pond. Former NASCAR Cup Series driver Greg Biffle participates in Mitchell’s videos regularly, and current Cup driver Carson Hocevar hopped on a live stream with Mitchell recently to help him virtually practice for Talladega on iRacing.
If you check the NASCAR YouTube channel right now, two days before the Talladega race, the featured video is a scheduled live stream for Mitchell’s in-car camera. That’s extraordinary for a race in the fourth-tier series.
Mitchell’s success and YouTube following is something I love to study. Since my husband and I are fairly new to posting on YouTube, we watch popular channels to learn how they package and present videos. I find that popular internet personalities are often popular in one place, but it’s hard to bring people to a new platform. For example, anecdotally:
- People are generous with follows and likes on Instagram, but they’re often not mobilized from the platform. It’s easy to like a photo but not really invest in the person in it.
- It’s hard to convert from TikTok to YouTube, because if people see you in short bursts, they usually don’t get to know you well — especially if their algorithm only shows you to them occasionally. I love watching TikTok but don’t put a ton of effort into posting, because of the people I watch there, I’ve only followed a handful on other platforms.
- Twitter gives insight into your personality and creates relationships with followers, but it’s an unstable platform in its current era.
- YouTube, if done correctly, creates deep relationships with your subscribers. They know you, or your YouTube persona, because they spend so much time with your voice and presence on their screen.
Mitchell has the perfect combination for YouTube and NASCAR stardom. His fanbase is highly mobilized, because he lives a dream life for a lot of dudes who watch YouTube: he builds cars, races them, does challenges with his friends to see who can buy the best cheap vehicles, and now, races in NASCAR. I have real-life, local friends who make frequent trips to see the races Mitchell hosts, and from what I’ve seen, his fans would travel to watch him drive a lawnmower.
That YouTube stardom, which began as a redneck meme, allows Mitchell to continue to behave as that meme while running NASCAR races — something people want, but often miss, in modern NASCAR. So much of racing is just “Drive fast and be boring,” because racing depends on sponsors, and boring is safe. To have his own enterprise outside of racing, where his income isn’t dependent on following traditional sponsor rules, allows Mitchell to break that mold. That makes him a hotbed for NASCAR virality.
I don’t know Mitchell personally, but I do find his approach to the internet — and real-life racing career — textbook-worthy. He’s turned a joke into an empire, and now, he’s using that empire to go racing.
It’s anyone’s dream, and that’s why they watch.
Top graphic images: Cleetus McFarland/YouTube/NASCAR; depositphotos.com
The Daytona race was the first time I ever watched NASCAR. They NEED him.
I think it helps that by all accounts, people say he’s a very genuine and caring person in real life. Unlike some (clearly a serial killer) fake nice personalities like Mr. Beast, he seems to be a person that people just want to be around. He’s that friend we all had where just EVERYONE liked them, because your day was better when they were around.
“Twitter gives insight into your personality and creates relationships with followers, but it’s an unstable platform in its current era.”
It’s pronounced ‘X’
And unstable is putting it mildly.
Gulf of MEXICO!!! /s
This makes more sense as he is fighting the legal battle over a Housing company expanding near his track. From his track planning and expansion shows his business side more that you know. I do get tired of the redneck persona but if you hear him working on a difficult project he drops that for his work voice.
Imagine if Katherine Legge had pulled a stunt like that.
Oh wait
Hell yeah brother! ????????
#COTD Came here to say this????
In this episode of Car Trek…
Tavarish, Hoovie, and Ed buy terrible import cars and take them to the Freedom Factory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL7TDaOGDAo
I don’t like any of these dudes. Hoovie’s the first I unsubscribed from.
I adore Cleetus. I’ve been following his channel since the Leroy days (or maybe before). Yes, the redneck schtick can get a hair old sometimes, but the channel is incredibly entertaining.
I’m stoked that he bought the Freedom Factory and has proven that racetracks aren’t all dead; they just need a different strategy to succeed. The Crown Vic races, Danger Ranger, and the Altima races are hilarious.
It’s also super cool that his genuine care for people is a big part of why he’s doing NASCAR now. He met Biffle due to needing a landing zone while using his personal helicopter (Consuela) to help the folks who were affected by the massive hurricane that took out a chunk of North Carolina, etc.
He seems like a genuinely nice dude and I’m happy that his dreams are seemingly coming true.
I love his videos about buying Consuela in Venezuela and having it restored. His efforts to aid people after the NC floods were generous and commendable. The operating expenses of any helicopter are rough. Especially a turbine-powered one.
Agreed. He seems like a nice guy who doesn’t take himself too seriously.
There are YouTubers I follow, and I don’t watch every post for any of them. Except maybe Alanis. Well, at least most of hers.
I’ve watched some of his stuff I find it interesting he was able to get his hands on a race track and a airport. He has some weirdo as a camera guy that I can’t stand always very annoying in the back ground making very dumb comments and generally being wrong about everything also terrible camera work. I find many others much more appealing like VGG, Pole barn, Junk yard, pudin, sleeperdude. They all kind of fit that redneck mold but don’t try hard for it but admit it. Media has definitely evolved and the rot brain tik tok people probably find him amusing so I guess only makes sense for NASCAR to get him in there he is basically running events of their roots with stock cars and a circle track.
VGG is far more entertaining and long term sustainable. Not everything he does is a win, but I admire the “let’s work with what we’ve got instead of throwing $10,000 in sponsor parts at builds every episode” approach.
The Gran Torino Elite and LeSabre episodes are pure gold.
You mean the LeSab-ray?
Yeah he is an original lots of comical releaf all his lexicon very amusing. I about died laughing at a few including the one where he was painting a square body for his brother when he still lived in Minnesota. The other guys are good too no nonsense or sponsors.
“That sound you hear is the cam grinding its own profile, so we’re going to let it go and see what it comes up with.”
I nearly died laughing
VGG is top of the heap for me in the “popular” Youtubes, but ColdWarMotors is still some of the best content out there with few subscribers which I don’t really understand. Rare cars, a bunch of good friends hanging out in Can-an-ada, and building some truly fantastic restorations on a real budget. The cussing and “Light Buzz” segments probably mess with the algorithm though.
I also believe that Cleetus manages VGG’s merch in some way. That came up in a video and I know that they work together a lot behind the scenes.
In the past couple videos, Derek has been very clear that there is only one place to get real VGG merch – wonder if someone was caught selling fakes somewhere
Edit: I’m not implying Cleetus was doing that, just that you reminded me when you mentioned VGG’s merch.
I think they have a partnership. Whoever manages Cleetus’ merch also manages VGG or something like that. Address on the current giveaway on the VGG site says this:
GForce Media LLC, 3809 Lorraine Road, Bradenton, FL 34211.
That sure looks like a Cleetus address……
I’ve bought a lot of VGG stuff over the years and am buying some Rebuild Black and a back rag so I can win that sweet dually! LOL
Merch is how those guys really make money. The demo ranch guy has bunker branding and make a fortune from that. Cleatus got in on it a few years ago I think I saw him give a warehouse tour with someone. Makes sense those guys band together and create jobs. Especially because he has the space. He seems like a good guy I just don’t really care for his videos. I’ve seen the cold war guy a few times he seems decent but I can’t really get into it and for some reason almost everyone I really watch is in Oklahoma, Kansas and Tennessee. With some in other Midwest states. I really enjoy puddins fab shop and sleeperdude it’s somehow wholesome but they build some good stuff they are massive under rated
George/LS George/Squirrel is awesome, and as far as YT camera guys go, he’s better than 99% of them.
Can’t stand him. Been around guys like that and can’t stand them. The voice the dumb wrong comments constantly.
I’m sorry this guy is funny but I grew up around rednecks and this isn’t even close.
The redneck shtick is very attractive to only a particular demographic, while being quite off putting to the rest of us.
I started watching some of his videos because his crew were doing cool stuff with drag racing and hot rodding, but the redneck thing definitely isn’t something I can get behind.
Hey, Granger “Earl Dibbles, Jr” Smith made millions off that shtick
So did Jim “Ernest P. Worrell” Varney.
I know Ernest had a Southern accent (Varney was from Kentucky) but I wouldn’t consider his act to be redneck. Larry the Cable Guy on the other hand…
Yeah, Ernest was just kind of an oblivious idiot manchild who had a southern accent, Daniel Lawrence Whitney definitely counts though
Interesting fact, Jim Varney started out as a Shakespearian actor.
Probably a heavy lift with a Kentucky accent,
Well, it was in a KY so that probably helped some.
I’m here for slapstick comedy like Tucker and Dale.
This is not that though, especially considering the current social climate in the US
By British standards, he’s just a standard American.
Working in the mechanical trades, I’ve got a fair tolerance for redneck highjinks. I was getting away from Hoonigan as the heavy music and jerky in&out camera shots seemed to be getting more important than actual nuts and bolts builds, so I followed the development of Leroy the Vette cart.
My tolerance only goes so far: I think the last video of his I saw was when they fed silicon breast implants through a massive turbo at high rpm. I noped out.
Enough of that.
The novelty wears off of his “I needed something I could film and publish in a hurry” content quickly.
This guy is awesome and then some. I’m pumped for the ‘Dega race (Sat 12:30).
Also his Crown Vic series is coming to town here next weekend, OMG.
No thanks, I don’t watch trump supporters.
Ah yes, the tolerant Left… It must be exhausting hating half the country.
Yes. Much harder than dividing and wrecking the whole country and alienating most of our allies.
I’m Canadian. Forgive me if I don’t particularly want to support people who support the asshole who wants to annex my country.
Half the country? Out of all eligible voters, Trump only got about 32% of them to vote for him. He didn’t even get 50% of those who actually voted to vote for him. While he did get more votes than any other candidate, more voters in total voted for someone other than him than for him. He won by only the slimmest of margins.
No. It’s just avoiding the ignorance and massive deficits in logic, and the lies that they spout endlessly.
Not mad, just smarter than them…
BTW your hero has a new hat on sale…50 bucks.
Made in China, because he’s a hypocrite…And because apparently is too cheap to use American labor…
Support the grifter!
Let’s save the politics for other sites and focus on our collective shared love of vehicular mayhem, shall we?
As mentioned above, I’m not a fan of people who want to annex my country.
No one is asking you to be. We’re just asking you to stop bringing him up when it’s not on topic.
If Cleetus includes politics in his persona then your beef and mine are with Cleetus, not the posters here.
No.
Politics have nothing to do with this article, so they’re off topic. Neither you nor anyone else is doing a service by following Trump supporters around the internet and shitposting about it, then rationalizing why you do it.
If you want to do something meaningful go join a rally, volunteer for a fundraiser, contribute to a politician or cause. Stop adding political noise to a forum about cars.
I guess being pro-American is political now. Other than specific local politics involving the freedom factory, I don’t know of any instance he’s been overtly political. Or does American Flag anything just equal Trump supporter to you?
He was openly Covid-denier early on, which is fairly political. I assume that did change once he finally got it himself, though.