Cleetus McFarland was back in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series this past weekend at Nashville Superspeedway. Racing for Richard Childress Racing in the No. 33 car, McFarland had to start in last after qualifying was rained out.
Ultimately, it was another learning experience for McFarland. He finished P32, multiple laps down, but didn’t look as lost as he did at Rockingham. After the race, Dale Jr. spoke to the YouTuber on pit road. Now, he’s offering more advice.
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Dale Jr. was asked what he thought of Cleetus’ performance on Saturday on his Ask Jr. podcast. The NASCAR Hall of Famer laid out a plan Cleetus could take.
“Well, you know, it was lot of mistakes. … I thought he did fine,” Dale Jr. said of McFarland’s performance. “My whole feeling about his deal is, if he can get himself two full seasons or a couple of years in ARCA, running all the ARCA races, all of them. Short tracks, everywhere. If he could go do that, man I think he would be way better off to try to tackle this O’Reilly stuff.
“So, while I don’t mind him running the one-off O’Reilly race every now and then, I just think he’s going to be frustrated, because the results won’t, you know, the race started, he passed a couple cars. But it’s like Joey Gase and those guys, and he’s in a way better car than they are. He caught a few people, and that’s great, he was excited about that. But eventually he’s going to go, ‘Alright man. I know I need to take this car and I need to be running up here.’ And when he has that happen, he’s going to get frustrated.”
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The other thing is, Cleetus McFarland owns a race track. That could come in handy for him if he wants to actually get serious about stock car racing.
“If he’s in it to have fun, run good, and still learn at the same rate, you can go do that in the ARCA series,” Earnhardt explained. “He’s got a Pro Late Model that he built. Go run that. I mean, he’s got a race track. I would be at that race track running laps. … Like, right now, on a Tuesday he could be just running sets of tires at his track in his Pro.”
That RCR No. 33 car is a good car. There are plenty of drivers who would love to get behind the wheel and show what they could do with some ECR power under the hood. So, Cleetus McFarland is going to have to find ways to improve. If not, he could find himself frustrated like Dale says.
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Jun 2, 2026, where it first appeared in the Racing section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
