NASCAR has denied an attempt by social media sensation Cleetus McFarland to race at Talladega Superspeedway on April 25. The news came down on Tuesday evening.

McFarland will have to show NASCAR a little bit more behind the wheel before the governing body is willing to give him superspeedway approval. FOX Sports reporter Bob Pockrass provided a statement from NASCAR EVP John Probst outlining the situation.

“He is approved right now for O’Reilly Series short tracks, which means he’s good for all of ARCA, all of truck, and then O’Reilly up through the short tracks,” Probst said. “We’d like to see more out of Cleetus in the short tracks. So we’re not saying no, but there is more that we would like to see out of Cleetus before we would approve him for Talladega.”

Cleetus McFarland said the news was “a kick in the nuts” but he handled it relatively gracefully in a video posted to Facebook on Tuesday evening. He noted he also needs a bit more seasoning at this point, and that he didn’t necessarily expect superspeedway approval right away.

In any case, NASCAR was very complimentary of McFarland and his efforts to break into racing at the highest levels. The sport, it seems, would like to see him succeed.

“We’re all huge Cleetus fans,” Probst said. “We all watch his videos and are certainly very appreciative of everything he’s done in our sport and will continue to do in our sport.”

Cleetus McFarland weighs in on decision

The talented YouTube star wasn’t beating himself up over NASCAR’s decision when it came to Talladega. In fact, McFarland himself seemed to come close to admitting it was a long shot.

“All in all this opportunity landed about two months ago,” he said. “And we came up with the idea of running a superspeedway. It’s not like we’ve been planning this for a year, and I’ve only been racing NASCAR for a year. It was never my mission to go out and climb in an O’Reilly’s car and get to the top as fast as I can. But we figured we’d try, and it didn’t get approved.”

Cleetus McFarland fully plans on getting his skills up to speed, though. Eventually, the goal is to get on those superspeedways.

“It is what it is. I need more windshield time, regardless whether it’s in an O’Reilly’s car, an ARCA car or a Truck,” he said. “More windshield time is going to help me. I’ve got a lot to learn, guys. So this isn’t as much of a stepback or a pushdown as it seems. Little bit of a kick in the nuts, but I’ve just got to get out there in other cars, do as much learning as possible, and then hopefully I’ll get to run Daytona, Talladega next year.”