Ever since Richard Childress Racing announced Cleetus McFarland as a part-time driver on their team, the pushback has been immense. Many fans and big-name insiders questioned his skills and his experience, wondering if he had truly earned the opportunity. After weeks of criticism and debates around NASCAR circles, McFarland finally opened up on his feelings about the situation.

The doubters are not getting to Cleetus McFarland

The YouTuber-cum-racecar driver is set to debut for RCR at Rockingham as part of his three-race deal in the O’Reilly Series.

After his disappointing run at Daytona, McFarland was not feeling all that well, but when the opportunity to race for RCR came, it was tough for him to refuse.

“If Richard Childress called them and said, ‘Hey, you want to come drive our car?’ All of them would have taken that opportunity too,” said McFarland.  “And if NASCAR is letting me do it, I’m in. I’m here, and no one can save me but myself at this point. Once I get on that track on Saturday, it’s up to me. So, they can complain as much as they’d like, but it’s happening, and it’s for two years. So they better buckle up.”

It’s worth mentioning that, along with many fans, some big names like Kyle Busch and Freddie Kraft also questioned Cleetus McFarland’s racing in NASCAR.

Busch, who himself is a driver of RCR, wondered how CleetusMcFarland got through the approval process, given his lack of experience. He even claimed that his 10-year-old son, Brexton, has more experience in race cars than the YouTuber.

Kraft, the spotter of Bubba Wallace, sarcastically called out McFarland being approved by NASCAR. He mentioned how the YouTuber crashed in the Rockingham test while also crashing on lap 5 of his Truck start at Daytona. The spotter even speculated that NASCAR got McFarland in because of his social media following of over 4.5 million subscribers.

However, not everyone is against the idea of Cleetus McFarland and the potential gains from his presence in NASCAR.

McFarland has the backing of a big NASCAR name

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has featured in Cleetus McFarland’s videos and hosted him on his podcast, claimed that NASCAR needs names and backgrounds like the YouTuber’s. However, Junior also admitted that McFarland needed a lot more experience to ‘really compete.’

“I want him racing in NASCAR, I want him bringing his followers to our sport, I want him to have success, I want him to have fun. I would say that he probably wouldn’t tell us, but that probably wasn’t too much fun, what happened [at Daytona],” Earnhardt said on his podcast.

The veteran driver wondered why NASCAR, as a sport, did not back Cleetus McFarland enough and instead of pushing back, help by surrounding him with the tools needed to excel in the sport.

With that said, it’ll be interesting to see how Cleetus McFarland performs in his O’Reilly debut at Rockingham. While his experience indicates that things could go wrong, McFarland will be gunning to prove his doubters wrong and put up a great display.