Cleetus McFarland’s mentor comments on “badas* driver” after impressive top-10 finish at Talladega

In a clip shared by Dalton Hopkins, Max Papis spoke about Cleetus McFarland’s racing performance. Papis said he had known Cleetus McFarland for about three years, initially working with him as a client, but they got to know each other better over the past six months. This came after McFarland’s top 10 finish in Talladega.

Papis himself is an accomplished figure in the racing scene, having raced in Formula One, Champ Car (CART), the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and NASCAR. He shared that he visited Talladega to personally support McFarland (YouTuber and NASCAR ARCA series driver), who had a custom American-themed steering wheel made by Papis’ company for the race.

Hopkins posted a video clip where Papis, who has been helping McFarland in racing, shared his views on the YouTuber's performance. He said,

“He’s just a badas* race car driver. That he fakes to be a YouTuber. I don’t think it’s the opposite… And I think that speaks a ton for the guy. He can drive, you know, for someone who has no experience, finishing in the top 10 here in Talladega, it’s huge." [0:48 onwards]

Further on Papis also shared what tips he had given McFarland, mentoring him for the race. In his own words,

"When you run in an event like this, you have everyone giving you an advice. You need to follow your instinct, you need to know if you're a race car driver, what you're doing and most of the times the best thing is like, do not do something that is out of your comfort zone." [1:52 onwards]

McFarland put on an impressive show during the ARCA Menards Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. He started 18th on the grid but faced some serious mechanical issues early on. McFarland managed to stay in the draft and fight through the field. Just a few laps into the race, he reported engine troubles, with his No. 30 Ford losing power because of a broken valve spring. Even with the underpowered car, McFarland crossed the finish line in 10th place, making this his first top-10 finish of his ARCA career.

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Cleetus McFarland shared his excitement ahead of Talladega race with new stock car

Before taking the green flag at Talladega, Cleetus McFarland shared a look at his preparations on social media. The YouTuber posted an image of his racecar being unloaded from the trailer ahead of Friday’s practice session. Cleetus McFarland tagged his sponsor, Kenetik, a healthy energy drink company with the caption,

“Let’s go!!! @bekenetik”.

The stock car featured in McFarland’s post was the #30 Rette Jones Racing Ford, the same machine he would later take to a top-10 finish. The Talladega race was Cleetus McFarland’s second ARCA Menards Series appearance, after his debut at Daytona earlier in the year. At Daytona, McFarland started 27th but got caught in two early crashes that cut his first ARCA race short. Despite the rough debut, McFarland was upbeat heading into Talladega. Speaking to Speedway Digest, he said,

“It's great to be back. Honestly, I'm incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to come back again to compete in the ARCA Menards Series at Talladega. Besides getting collected in two early race accidents, I had so much fun at Daytona."

After a practice session on Friday, McFarland returned to the track Saturday, April 26, for the General Tire 200. Rolling off 18th, he fought through mechanical troubles to claim a 10th-place finish.