{"id":583203,"date":"2026-04-05T05:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T05:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/583203\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T05:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T05:43:10","slug":"nascar-hits-cleetus-mcfarland-with-penalty-during-oreilly-debut-at-rockingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/583203\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR hits Cleetus McFarland with penalty during O’Reilly debut at Rockingham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cleetus McFarland was struggling toward the back of the pack for much of his NASCAR<\/a> O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series debut at Rockingham. Then things went from bad to worse with a speeding penalty.<\/p>\n

McFarland was tagged with the penalty<\/a> early in Stage 3, sending him to the back of the pack. He was running about 30th at the time.<\/p>\n

The miscue comes at an interesting time in Cleetus McFarland\u2019s racing career. He has quickly gained traction after getting a few rides, in part due to his immense social media fame.<\/p>\n

But McFarland announced early last month he had reached a deal with Richard Childress Racing to compete in the NOAPS<\/a> on a part-time basis. He revealed the news in a social media post, expressing excitement about joining one of NASCAR\u2019s most established organizations while continuing to build experience behind the wheel.<\/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 Cleetus McFarland wrote. \u201cThis is a part time deal (3 races a year right now) but hopefully it grows into something bigger. They called me and basically said we want to make you a better driver and give you an opportunity to grow in this sport\u2026. To which I said HELL YEAH BROTHER.\u201d<\/p>\n

McFarland added that Tommy\u2019s Express Car Wash will serve as his primary sponsorship partner for the duration of his two-year agreement: \u201cMy sponsorship partner is with Tommy\u2019s Express Car Wash for the duration of my two year contract,\u201d he continued. \u201cI\u2019m so jacked, feel so lucky. Cannot wait to work with this incredible team! Be like Biff!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic added that Cleetus McFarland\u2019s first race would be at Rockingham. The announcement came shortly after McFarland made his NASCAR Truck Series debut in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.<\/p>\n

The Daytona race ended quickly for the social media personality, however, as he lost control exiting Turn 4 and crashed just six laps into the event, finishing last in the 37-truck field. Despite the early exit, the debut still marked a significant milestone for McFarland, who boasts more than four million subscribers on YouTube and has built a massive following through automotive and racing content.<\/p>\n

On3\u2019s Steve Samra also contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cleetus McFarland was struggling toward the back of the pack for much of his NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-583203","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\/583203","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=583203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}