Cleetus McFarland's NASCAR debut was a learning experience. The Richard Childress Racing driver admitted to 'stupid mistakes' after a chaotic race. While the team's goal was just to finish, McFarland's performance drew criticism and left him reflecting on what could have been.

After an eventful 32nd-place finish, the Richard Childress Racing driver navigated multiple spins in his debut in stock car racing's second tier.

"Our goal as a team was to finish the race and not get last. So we did meet our goals," McFarland said after his first NOAPS race with RCR. "We did have higher expectations like, or higher. Once I think we got to 26 for a minute and I was like so excited just to hear that literally the next corner, I went in and spun out."

Following this, McFarland mentioned how he slid down the track, and then spun back onto the track on Lap 206, resulting in the seventh caution flag. Back-to-back incidents in the first two stages were caused by what he called his 'stupid mistakes.'

"Several times I just overdrove the corner... And then the one time I lost it, I think I could get a top 20 if I just eliminated a few of my stupid mistakes. I went three wide on the bottom. I don't have enough skill for that. I don't know what I was doing, but I was excited and I had a run on the guy. I'm like down to the bottom and then I lost it," McFarland said about the incident.

Cleetus McFarland's debut in the NOAPS started with a three-wide situation entering Turn 1, when he almost lost control of his #33 car, but saved it. After two race-ruining incidents the pit stop penalty put the final nail in the Rockingham Speedway race's coffin.

In Stage 3 of the race, NASCAR slapped McFarland with a speeding penalty while running roughly 30th. In the end, the controversial driver came home in 32nd place, completing his noisy debut.

While Garrett Mitchell, aka Cleetus McFarland made his debut, it did not go well with a section of fans and experts as they called out NASCAR's decision to allow him to race despite having limited stock car racing experience. One such critic was Freddie Kraft, the spotter for Bubba Wallace.

Freddie Kraft slammed NASCAR over Cleetus McFarland's approval

After NASCAR allowed Cleetus McFarland to race in the RCR under a part-time deal, Kraft mentioned the former's debut race statistics to call the organization out. Taking to his official X account, Kraft mentioned McFarland's Lap five crash in the Truck Series at Daytona in February this year.

"Crash at the Rockingham truck test. Crash Lap 5 of your only truck start. Good enough for me. Approved,” Kraft wrote on X. “I don’t blame Cleetus one bit. We’d all jump at the chance to just show up and get approved.”

Besides Kraft, there were several critics and fans who mentioned how McFarland had only seven ARCA Menards races, and one Truck Series race to his name, before getting the approval.

Despite McFarland's limited experience, his social media popularity likely influenced NASCAR's decision to approve him.

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Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi