Cleetus McFarland has a dream of one day making it to the NASCAR Cup Series. To accomplish that, he has to make his way through NASCAR’s approval process.

McFarland, who made his Truck Series debut last month at Daytona International Speedway, announced Wednesday he signed a part-time deal with Richard Childress Racing to compete in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. His first NOAPS start will come Saturday, April 4, at Rockingham Speedway. McFarland then plans to run at Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona.

Jeff Gluck of The Athletic provided further insight on the process McFarland has to go through. Speaking on the “Gluckcast,” Gluck revealed that it’s no guarantee McFarland will be approved to compete at either superspeedway. How he performs at Rockingham will determine his next steps.

“NASCAR’s already approved him for all the Truck Series races and the next step once you’re approved for Truck races is to run O’Reilly Series short tracks. So, had he asked, he may have gotten approved for those already,” Gluck said Thursday. “Now, he’s not running short tracks which, to me, is a smart move because, obviously, he has a major lack of experience, we all know that. He’s trying to run superspeedways which are, again, arguably from a driver standpoint, seem easier.

“… In order to approve him to run on a superspeedway, he’s gotta run at least something else in O’Reilly first. So, he’s going to do this Rockingham race in order to get approved for Talladega. Now, it’s no guarantee that he’s going to get approved for Talladega, this is not just a rubber stamp moment. I talked to NASCAR about this — there’s a chance he could crash or not run well enough, and they can say, ‘you know what, you’re not ready for Talladega yet.’”

Cleetus McFarland is moving up the ladder in NASCAR

McFarland, the YouTube sensation, is light on experience in motorsports. The extent of McFarland’s experience in NASCAR is four starts in the ARCA Menards Series last season, and another this season at Daytona. He is set to run a part-time ARCA schedule in 2026 for Rette Jones Racing.

His Truck debut at Daytona didn’t last long. He crashed hard by himself just six laps into the race. McFarland was approved to make his Truck debut at Daytona after passing a high-speed test at Rockingham. The 30-year-old crashed during the test. 

Many, including Freddie Kraft, have been critical of NASCAR for approving McFarland despite his lack of experience and success. Gluck explained why he has no issue with McFarland being granted approval.

“Look, I get the people who are saying, ‘this is too early, he’s too rushed,’ and they’re criticizing him for trying to climb up the ladder like this,” Gluck said. “To me, look, if he does crash and he takes out an O’Reilly contender as he’s being a lap car or whatever, everybody absolutely has the right to be upset and criticize him, and he will be criticized.

“… To me, a superspeedway is about if you’re gonna be a safety hazard to others. Also, the only way to get experience at those types of tracks is to go do them. I don’t have a problem with how he’s trying to do this because he’s doing superspeedways. If he was coming in and saying, ‘hey, listen, I’m trying to do all these other tracks without this experience,’ I’d say, ‘ooh, let’s pump the brakes on this one.’”