{"id":583288,"date":"2026-04-05T06:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/583288\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T06:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:44:10","slug":"kyle-petty-reacts-to-cleetus-mcfarland-nascar-oreilly-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/583288\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Petty reacts to Cleetus McFarland NASCAR O’Reilly debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was an eventful day for Cleetus McFarland in his NASCAR<\/a> O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series debut. But wasn\u2019t that pretty much expected?<\/p>\n

What many might not have expected was that McFarland would finish the race. He did so, notching a P32 finish despite ending the race down six laps.<\/p>\n

It was an adventure, but it got people talking. Very Cleetus McFarland-like.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw some great performances,\u201d broadcaster Kyle Petty said after the race. \u201cObviously from William (Sawalich). We saw Corey Day win those first two segments. We saw some guys do some things that I don\u2019t think we expected. And listen, if you\u2019re going to criticize, you\u2019ve got to give credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say, Cleetus did what he needed to do. He ran every lap. A lot of them were on the apron, I\u2019m going to give him that. He got down on the apron a few times. But at the same time he didn\u2019t tear anything up. He didn\u2019t really get in anybody\u2019s way, and that\u2019s what he needed to do to shut up guys like me, to make me quit talking about him. So I\u2019ve got to give him props too. It was a good, good day at the Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a big step for Cleetus McFarland. Simply finishing the race will be considered a monumental win.<\/p>\n

He has already admitted how hard racing at this level is<\/a>. It\u2019s not just get in a car and go. And it wasn\u2019t like McFarland ran without issues.<\/p>\n

He spun a few times, once completely to bring out a caution. He also got caught speeding and NASCAR issued a penalty<\/a> to him. Still, expectations for him ran the gamut coming in.<\/p>\n

That Cleetus McFarland finished the race? Well, that had analysts like Petty pretty impressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so much fun, so many memories flash through your head when you\u2019re sitting down here in Turn 1 and you remember seeing Mark Martin, you remember seeing my dad when I was on his pit crew, watching these cars roll through 1 and 2,\u201d Petty said<\/a>. \u201cSo reminiscent of that. Guys looking for a place, looking for a place with grip no matter what was going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw some great racing out here today. Not only at the front of the pack but all the way through. You guys were screaming in my ear when they were three-wide, and that\u2019s what Rockingham is. I said it before, my dad said, \u2018I forgot how race-y that racetrack is.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleetus McFarland will get another chance in NOAPS. He signed a three-race deal this year. Now he\u2019s got a little bit more know-how and probably a lot more confidence after making it through Rockingham unscathed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was an eventful day for Cleetus McFarland in his NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series debut. But wasn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-583288","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\/583288","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=583288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}