Is he ready to race trucks right now? No. Will he be? Could he be? Yes. What he needs is more ARCA races. He needs to race short track asphalt. He could run the NASCAR Late Model Stock Triple Crown. I don’t care,” Dale Jr gave this blunt assessment of Cleetus McFarland’s NASCAR future. And the internet hasn’t stopped buzzing since. That debate has now taken another turn thanks to NASCAR veteran Kenny Wallace, who came out swinging in defense of the YouTube star.

Kenny Wallace has a different opinion from Dale Earnhardt Jr

“The reason there was 1.6 million people is we had Cleetus McFarland there. We had Tony Stewart and Travis Pastrana. I know for a fact who brought the most. It was Cleetus McFarland. This guy is a phenomenon. It’s unbelievable.”

With that line, Kenny Wallace didn’t just defend Cleetus. In fact, he put hard numbers behind his argument. And in the world of NASCAR, numbers often speak louder than anything else.

Cleetus McFarland, the internet personality turned racer, isn’t just another influencer dabbling in motorsports. He’s a digital juggernaut. His YouTube channel boasts more than 4.64 million subscribers and over 2.08 billion total views, with individual uploads routinely pulling over a million views.

Add in his massive 970k Instagram followers, and you start to understand why his presence at the Daytona 500 weekend drew in fans who might never have watched a Truck Series race before. This crossover appeal is exactly what Wallace was highlighting.

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Fans didn’t just tune in because a race was on. They tuned in because Cleetus was in it. For a sport competing against countless entertainment options, that kind of pull is priceless. And the ripple effect has already shown up in the metrics. NASCAR reported a 62% increase in Friday practice viewership and a 15% jump in qualifying numbers, a welcome sign for a sport always looking to solidify its TV audience.

In the end, Wallace’s point lands cleanly: like him or not, Cleetus McFarland moves the needle. And in modern NASCAR, that’s a skill just as valuable as turning fast laps, whether Dale Earnhardt Jr agrees or not.

Cleetus McFarland reflects on his Daytona debut

Cleetus McFarland’s much-anticipated run in the Fresh From Florida 250 with the No. 4 Chevrolet Silverado RST for Niece Motorsports didn’t last long. But it definitely left an impression. Hype was high, the audience was massive, and expectations were… cautiously optimistic. But by Lap 6, reality hit hard. McFarland got loose coming out of Turn 4, snapped sideways, and his night was over almost as quickly as it began.

After the race, McFarland didn’t sugarcoat the chaos: “The sensation was incredible. We were three-wide, which was insane from the start,” McFarland said after the race. “It was immediately three-wide, which I wasn’t expecting, and it was insane. I was having the time of my life-literally-and I just did not check myself before I wrecked myself.”

It was honest, raw, and classic Cleetus and gave fans a glimpse into just how overwhelming a superspeedway debut can be, even for a massive personality like him. The spectacle lived up to his brand, even if the result didn’t.

But Daytona wasn’t an isolated struggle. McFarland’s ARCA résumé shows he’s still early in his driving development. In the ARCA Menards Series East, he managed a 17th-place finish. In the ARCA Menards Series, his results ranged from ninth to 30th. Now, this is respectable for a newcomer but far from a polished, consistent performance.

Still, what he lacks in experience, he makes up for with passion and reach. And for NASCAR, that combination continues to be both valuable and impossible to ignore.