The good news? Out of 49 entries, Cleetus McFarland has made the 40-car field for ARCA’s Ride the ’Dente 200 at Daytona. The bad news? Qualifying was rained out, with starting spots set by 2024 owners’ points. Therefore, he’ll start roughly mid-pack.
Everyone I know is going to this race just to see him...I have been roped in as well but I'm excited to see how he does.
In reply to Paris Van Gorder :
One thing I've learned is that driving skills alone don't guarantee a successful career as a driver; marketability plays a huge part as well.
Lucky for Cleetus, it looks like he has plenty of both. I wish him nothing but the best.
People so underestimate how much marketing is required of a modern racing driver.
In reply to Tom1200 :
Oh 100%. Racing costs money, so if sponsors think you bring more eyes to the car and their products, that makes you more valuable.
I think hes going to suprise a lot of people .
23rd fastest in practice. However, take that with a grain of salt being at Daytona.
Appleseed said:I think hes going to suprise a lot of people .
"I've never seen anyone get that much hang time in a crash"? 
Hell yeah bruther
That HAS to be painted on the car somewhere
berkeleying guy is living the dream.
NASCAR guy offers you a ride and you have the clout to back it up driving and marketing.
Greg Biffle asks for you and your helicopter to help people in NC.
You buy a race track and then 50% of the drag strip next to it.
20% of a manufacturer of race car parts.
You got you pilots license for planes and helicopters and then get qualified to fly a Blackhawk.
All after dropping out of law school...
I fix nuke submarines...wtf have I done with my life.
Luckiest dude out there missing that crash....
I saw his in car "sponsor" is cleetus.
His luck ran out. Cleetus appears done for the day with that wreck.
All the YouTube feed comments trashing women in Motorsports as DEI hires causing the crash are kinda gross.
what do they say? Don't read the comments. 🤦🏻
That said, the live access feed was pretty cool. Seemed like they had some audio problems vs intended.
This race is a good indication that there are too many people who think just because they have the money to buy a seat, that makes them a racer.
In reply to xflowgolf (Forum Supporter) :
I think the audio was tuned to the car at full chooch so anything less than that wasn't audible.
Race looked like amateur hour with constant wrecks.
Most of these short track guys don't know a thing about running in the draft. You can see the fifth or sixth car in line run up and hit the car in front of them when the accordion effect happens because the second car in line lifted.
Those announcers saying the guy who wrecked Helio after the finish didn't know the race was over... I don't know, that looked pretty intentional to me.
racerfink said:Those announcers saying the guy who wrecked Helio after the finish didn't know the race was over... I don't know, that looked pretty intentional to me.
Xfinity race looking like it's gonna go the same way...
Between his goofy post wreck interview and the fact they had him up in the broadcast booth for most of the rest of the race, I suspect NASCAR will want him in as many events as possible. I saw something about his in car livestream being extremely popular, too.
These announcers seem to have missed that Creed was going almost 10mph slower than Zilusch when he threw that late block.
In reply to J.A. Ackley :
BS like that is why I can't watch NASCAR
Huge boost for the sport. I would have never dreamed to tune into an ARCA race had it not been for Cleetus. I heard NASCAR's YouTube page gained 96k followers in 3 days.
Helio just said in an interview during the rain delay that the guy behind him at the finish yesterday had no radio communication with the pits.
Having finished a Champcar race there under the lights, it is hard to see the flagger up in the stand unless you're looking for him, so I'll give him a pass.
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