{"id":525337,"date":"2026-03-09T21:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T21:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/525337\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T21:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T21:21:08","slug":"cleetus-mcfarland-friend-squirrel-mcnutt-to-make-nascar-debut-at-hickory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/525337\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleetus McFarland friend, Squirrel McNutt, to make NASCAR debut at Hickory"},"content":{"rendered":"

A familiar face to fans of Garrett Mitchell<\/a> is preparing to make his own jump into stock car racing. George Siciliano<\/a>, widely known to viewers of the Cleetus McFarland YouTube channel as \u201cSquirrel McNutt,\u201d<\/a> will make his debut in the ARCA Menards Series East at Hickory Motor Speedway later this month.<\/p>\n

Siciliano shared the news on social media while unveiling the car he\u2019ll drive in his first ARCA start: \u201cIS THIS REAL LIFE?! That @heatwavevisual car is looking amazing I can not wait to be racing this bad boy in Hickory on March 28th!\u201d Siciliano wrote on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Known to many fans simply as \u201cSquirrel,\u201d Siciliano previously revealed his plans to pursue ARCA competition during a January video posted on the Cleetus McFarland YouTube channel. On Monday, he offered the first look at the car for his series debut in a post on Instagram.<\/p>\n

The opportunity marks another step for personalities within Mitchell\u2019s rapidly growing racing circle as they continue to branch into organized motorsports competition. Mitchell himself recently made headlines after announcing a deal with Richard Childress Racing to compete part-time in the ARCA Menards Series O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys\u2026 I can\u2019t believe I get to say this, but I\u2019m officially a driver at Richard Childress Racing for the Oreilly\u2019s Series,\u201d Mitchell wrote in a social media post announcing the deal. \u201cThis is a part time deal (3 races a year right now) but hopefully it grows into something bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell\u2019s growing involvement in NASCAR competition follows his Truck Series debut earlier this year at Daytona International Speedway. The race ended early after he crashed exiting Turn 4 just six laps into the event, finishing last in the 37-truck field.<\/p>\n

Despite the result, the appearance still represented a major milestone for the YouTube creator, who has built a following of more than four million subscribers through automotive and racing content.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been one of the most outspoken supporters of Mitchell\u2019s pursuit of a racing career, emphasizing that gaining experience will be the key to long-term success.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs he ready to race trucks right now? No. Will he be, could he be? Yes,\u201d Earnhardt said on the Dale Jr. Download. \u201cHe just needs to be racing more than he\u2019s doing, and he needs to get more experience and get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mitchell continues building his r\u00e9sum\u00e9 with a partial ARCA schedule in 2026, Siciliano will now take his own first step in the sport when the ARCA Menards Series East visits Hickory on March 28. It\u2019ll be fascinating to watch their motorsports journeys continue on their own respective paths.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A familiar face to fans of Garrett Mitchell is preparing to make his own jump into stock car…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-525337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}