YouTube star-turned NASCAR driver Cleetus McFarland recently opened up about his time helping victims of Hurricane Helene. The devastating tropical cyclone hit Southeastern America on September 26, 2024.

It tore through Western North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. During this time, McFarland, along with the late NASCAR champion Greg Biffle, flew their helicopters in the hurricane-hit areas to help people. 

On Wednesday's episode of the "Herm and Schrader" podcast hosted by former driver Kenny Wallace, McFarland recalled his time helping and getting people to safety who were badly hit by the hurricane.

"We got to help a lot of people," the Truck Series driver said. "I mean, they had it really rough up there. So that was a very memorable moment for me in my life. And I love flying, right?"

He further recalled one of the many rescue operations he had carried out. McFarland shared a memorable moment involving a person he had just rescued from a devastated town.

"I remember when I was like flying it, and this guy, he barfed in the back seat, and we had windows open, and it kind of blew forward, and I felt it on the back of my neck. And I'm in like this brand new helicopter," he said.

When Wallace asked McFarland if he remembered who the person was, he replied:

"The guy, I don't know his name because all I did was pick him up out of like a blown-apart town and fly him to Hickory. He did write a comment on one of my videos. He's like, 'Hey, I was a guy who threw up in the back of your helicopter.' You know, it was all good. We hosed it out, you know. There was so much mud and crap in the back of it. I mean, I just put the pressure washer in that thing."

As highlighted by McFarland, it remains one of the highlights of his aviation journey. However, he was not the only motorsport personality on the ground carrying out rescue missions with his personal helicopter.

How an "overwhelmed" Greg Biffle carried out rescue missions in North Carolina

After Hurricane Helene hit, Greg Biffle, who was also a licensed pilot, received a text from a friend to save a family stranded in North Carolina in an Airbnb, and they were running out of supplies.

He revealed that he received thousands of such messages and did his best to fulfil as many requests as he could until it wasn't safe to fly anymore. But when he couldn't fly, the thoughts of the people in need troubled him.

"The hardest thing was when I went home at night and landed in the dark because we just couldn’t fly anymore, my mind wouldn’t shut off," he said (via People). "I’m sitting there at my counter, looking through my phone, just overwhelmed, like what am I gonna do next?"

Greg Biffle did not stop there; he later proactively stepped forward to provide aid to people in Jamaica who were hit by Hurricane Melissa. Biffle was rewarded for his humanitarian efforts with the 2024 Myers Brothers Award in November 2024.

He tragically passed away in a fatal plane crash on December 18, 2025, along with his wife and two children.

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Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Yash Kotak