The race weekend at Talladega Superspeedway will feature some extra flair as YouTube content creator Cleetus McFarland makes his return to stock car racing.
McFarland, whose real name is Garrett Mitchell, will reunite with Rette Jones Racing for Saturday afternoon's ARCA Menards Series race. This will mark his second career ARCA start and his first since his debut earlier this season at Daytona International Speedway.
The race at Daytona was memorable for McFarland, albeit maybe not in a way that he expected. He was collected in two separate multi-car incidents, which led to a 30th-place finish.
His time on camera was not over, however. McFarland first sparked comments with his interview after exiting the infield care center. He then spent some time in the Fox Sports booth discussing his move into stock car racing.
Let's throw Cleetus McFarland in the booth more often pic.twitter.com/Nup961xxjP
— Skewcar (@Skewcar) February 15, 2025
"Well, I was having the best day of my life," McFarland said during his interview. "Ripping around Daytona like a bald eagle. I was flat out. Avoided a wreck, which was awesome.
"I thought I was the best driver to ever exist in that moment. It's probably because my sleeves were cut off that I was able to pull off that maneuver, come down pit road."
Will Talladega provide McFarland with an opportunity to deliver a better finish for Rette Jones Racing? This is entirely possible, considering that he recently spent time at the Alabama track with superspeedway ace Dale Earnhardt Jr.
McFarland received some advice about staying in line, learning for most of the race, and then taking some risks in the closing laps. Earnhardt Jr., who enjoyed considerable success at Talladega, emphasized being patient while other ARCA drivers made some early mistakes.
The Hall of Famer also explained how to properly create a gap and use a push from another car to create a run. This method, as he explained, is the way to make passes on a superspeedway.
"If you've got a car in front of you that you want to pass, and you have a car behind you -- you have to have a car behind you to be able to do this," Earnhardt Jr. said. "You can't just pass somebody yourself.
"You kind of lift off the gas a little bit and back up and create a little bit of space between you and that car. Maybe two, three car lengths. And you look in the mirror, and you wait for that car behind you to get right up to your bumper, then you hammer down."
Earnhardt Jr. is not the only veteran who has talked to McFarland about his upcoming start at Talladega. Greg Biffle, who worked with McFarland to support those impacted by Hurricane Helene, has threatened to run an ARCA car so they could be teammates.
Biffle hasn't put together a deal to run a race, but he has spent time explaining some of the finer points of superspeedway racing while helping the YouTuber prepare for another racing challenge.
"I still feel like he learned a decent amount at Daytona," Biffle told media members at Darlington Raceway in April. "Hopefully, Talladega will be a cleaner race for him, and we'll see what happens.