Cleetus McFarland NASCAR approval update: Nashville race could unlock everything

Cleetus McFarland turned some heads at Talladega in the ARCA race when he finished in second, turning in an excellent race and even leading some laps toward the end. So has he moved any closer to full NASCAR track approval?

That was a question posed to NASCAR vice president of race communications Mike Forde on this week’s episode of the Hauler Talk podcast. The answer might intrigue Cleetus McFarland fans.

“Not yet, no. So his next step will be at Nashville,” Forde said. “He’ll be running the O’Reilly Auto Parts race at Nashville Superspeedway and then we will circle up. Depending on how he does then, the sort of driver approval committee will meet and discuss if he’s ready for the next step.”

But Forde then dropped an interesting nugget. Cleetus McFarland might be able to win approval to race all tracks at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series with a good showing at Nashville.

That would include superspeedways, potentially. McFarland had hoped to race at Talladega in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, but he did not have approval.

“The next step then would be intermediate, so 1.5-, 2-mile tracks,” Forde said. “There is a chance that he could be granted approval for the whole kit and caboodle and superspeedways in that, but yeah… more to come on that one. So we’ll have that conversation after Nashville and we’ll see where we’re at if he can race just mile-and-a-halfs or maybe he can come back for the second Daytona race in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.”

What would Cleetus McFarland have to do to clear that bar? It’s not clear exactly.

Forde didn’t say that winning in Nashville would be a must or anything like that. However, he did offer at least a little bit more clarity. And he once again reiterated there’s a chance McFarland gains full approval if Nashville goes well.

“It could. It would be a pretty high hurdle to clear because the next step, like I said, would be intermediates,” Forde said. “So if he does outstanding in Nashville, I imagine that he would be approved for 1.5. But there is a scenario where we feel comfortable enough that he could do everything.”