NASCAR officially ruled Tuesday that Cleetus McFarland needs more time on the track before he’s cleared to race at Talladega Superspeedway. Before the body did so, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had expressed his own doubts about McFarland’s readiness.

Speaking on the Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt gave McFarland props for finishing the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Rockingham. But he voiced his concerns plainly.

“I saw enough to not approve him for Daytona or Talladega in the O’Reilly Series, to be quite honest with you,” Earnhardt said. “I was not present and in person for any of this, but I watched the YouTube video from the Truck test with Niece. I watched the YouTube video of his O’Reilly test with RCR. Then I watched the race.

“In all three of those, he busted his ass. Now he didn’t hit anything, except for the truck. He did wall the truck off of (Turn) 2. But in all three of those instances he was … lost control of the car or the truck.”

Cleetus McFarland expressed his disappointment over NASCAR’s decision, calling it a “kick in the nuts.” But he seemed to understand it, too.

He appears ready to do whatever it takes to work his way up to the superspeedway level at some of the highest levels of NASCAR. He just needs a little more seasoning.

That was evident at Rockingham, where Cleetus McFarland often cut a low line on the track. Kyle Petty joked that he saw places of the racetrack few other drives have. Earnhardt explained some of the challenges at Rockingham, which saw McFarland lose control a few times.

“I would say, and I told him this after the race, like the Rockingham surface and tire is going to be one of the trickier ones,” Earnhardt said. “It’s a hard tire and it’s a relatively repaved surface, so it’s got a very small window before you bust your ass, and it’s easy to bust your ass.

“I actually expected him to wreck in the O’Reilly Series. I expected him to knock the deck lid off the car. He didn’t. So that was a surprise, I guess. Not a surprise, but I just expected him to. But he got to the end, he finished a race.”

So where does Cleetus McFarland go from here? Just more racing.

NASCAR didn’t set exact parameters on what it would take to gain clearance to race superspeedways, but it did suggest more time in ARCA and Trucks. That was Earnhardt’s suggestion as well.

“I think he definitely, I would say, no, I need one, two, maybe three more events somewhere else before you’re going to get this opportunity in the O’Reilly Series to go to Daytona or Talladega,” Earnhardt said.