With Cleetus McFarland running up front, ARCA race at Talladega posts huge viewership increase

It’s no secret at this point that Cleetus McFarland is one of the most followed drivers on the track, virtually wherever he lines up. And Saturday’s ARCA race at Talladega once again bore that out.

McFarland finished second in the race. Perhaps more importantly, he likely contributed to a huge jump in viewership for the event.

According to a report from Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal, the ARCA race saw 446,000 average viewers. That was up 41% from the year prior, which drew an average of 317,000 viewers.

That Cleetus McFarland was running up front with a chance to win the race likely played a large part. His success continues to drive interest in the sport, particularly as he has success in ARCA and attempts to tackle higher levels in NASCAR.

In addition to the normal viewership for the race, Cleetus McFarland also had an in-car cam on YouTube. Thousands watched. As NASCAR insider for The Athletic, Jeff Gluck noted, “pretty strong numbers for ARCA.”

More on Cleetus McFarland, NASCAR

If you couldn’t get enough of Cleetus McFarland at Talladega, his popularity might only continue growing as part of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. He announced earlier this week on Facebook that he’ll be running at Nashville on May 30.

It’s great news for McFarland and his fans. As you can tell, he’s on the right track after being denied approval by NASCAR earlier this month to compete in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Talladega. McFarland previously made his NOAPS debut on April 4 at Rockingham Speedway, finishing six laps down in 32nd. 

Evidently, NASCAR didn’t see enough from McFarland at the time to grant him approval to run at superspeedways such as Talladega and Daytona International Speedway. NASCAR’s Steve O’Donnell said afterwards that McFarland can still earn approval, but they need to see some progression.

McFarland, whose real name is Garrett Mitchell, is currently approved to run NOAPS short tracks and all Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series races. The 31-year-old made his Truck debut in the 2026 season opener at Daytona, crashing after completing just five laps. At Rockingham, he spun twice and nearly went around on two other occasions. 

On3’s Steve Samra also contributed to this report.