NASCAR Denies Cleetus McFarland's Bid to Run Talladega O'Reilly Race

NASCAR has denied Cleetus McFarland's entry into superspeedway events in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series until the sanctioning body can see more from him.

Cleetus McFarland looks over his No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at Rockingham Speedway. | Matt Marrie | Racing America On SI

Cleetus McFarland had high hopes of being able to compete in next weekend's NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series event at Talladega Superspeedway behind the wheel of a Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. However, NASCAR has opted to not approve the YouTube personality for bigger tracks in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series after a subpar debut race at Rockingham Speedway last weekend.

McFarland broke the news to his large and passionate fanbase through his social media accounts on Tuesday evening. While McFarland described the decision from NASCAR as a, "Kick in the nuts," McFarland was also very receptive the criticism from the sanctioning body, and admits after nearly crashing his car four times last Saturday that, "I've got a lot to learn."

While McFarland isn't currently approved to compete at superspeedways in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, NASCAR did want to clarify that the driver remains fully approved at all tracks in the ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series ranks, and that the sanctioning body is open to further approval in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series if they can see enough from McFarland to justify the approval.

“We're all huge Cleetus fans. We all watch his videos and are certainly very appreciative of everything he's done in our sport and will continue to do in our sport. He is approved right now for O'Reilly Series short tracks, which means he's good for all of ARCA, all of truck, and then O'Reilly up through the short tracks. We'd like to see more out of Cleetus in the short tracks. So we're not saying no, but there is more that we would like to see out of Cleetus before we would approve him for Talladega,” said John Probst, NASCAR EVP and Chief Racing Development Officer, in a statement.

McFarland, 31, has competed in just one NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event and six ARCA platform events in addition to his NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series debut a weekend ago at Rockingham Speedway.

The Nebraska native finished 32nd in his O'Reilly Series debut, and he was six laps off the pace of race winner William Sawalich.

In his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut, which took place in the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway earlier this year, McFarland finished dead-last after crashing in an incident by himself on Lap 6.

While he's still trying to gain his footing in the NASCAR National Series level, McFarland has shown capable driving in the ARCA ranks, as he has two top-10 finishes in his five ARCA Menards Series starts, and he scored a career-best fourth-place finish in last weekend's ARCA Menards Series East race at Rockingham Speedway.