The concept of rules in NASCAR is a tricky one. While it applies to govern the workings of the sport, the same rules are often twisted and worked around to get a desired outcome. That is the idea that Ty Gibbs, the grandson of Joe Gibbs, recently pitched about NASCAR’s approval process.

Ty Gibbs comments on NASCAR’s treatment of Joe Gibbs’ youngster and McFarland

During a media availability session on Saturday at Martinsville, Ty Gibbs was asked about Cleetus McFarland getting the approval despite having little to no experience after his RCR deal announcement. The reporter wondered what McFarland’s entry could mean to a young driver who has to show he’s good enough to keep going.

Gibbs claimed such decisions are in the hands of NASCAR, and he wasn’t even aware of McFarland’s announcement. Having said that, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver cast a contrast between McFarland and how the approval went down for Brent Crews, as he was restricted from racing because of his age.

“I think they’re strict around some people, like Brent Crews has won races, and they just finally got to do it. And then somebody like that, that’s probably never ran a race like a real NASCAR race before, a couple gets to just get thrown in. So, I don’t know, but maybe they need the views, and it’s important to NASCAR. So, that’s not my call,” Gibbs described.

McFarland, who has 6 ARCA starts in total and one Truck Series start, signed an agreement with Richard Childress Racing for a part-time role. This raised a lot of eyebrows in NASCAR, with some big names being vocal against the idea of an inexperienced internet personality being allowed on a speedway alongside proper racecar drivers.

One of those big names was Kyle Busch of RCR, who claimed his son Brexton has ‘probably run more races’ than McFarland. Busch mentioned how Denny Hamlin had to run 10,000 races while McFarland has run around 10, which shows ‘a need to have ample experience.’

Another critic of McFarland’s approval was Freddie Kraft, who shed light on how bad his incident in the Daytona Truck race could’ve been. The spotter said that McFarland could’ve wiped out half the field if not for ‘dumb luck’.

“I’m sure he’s a great guy, he seems like a phenomenal person, he’s got great car control in the videos I watch, he drives anything in the world — he’s not ready for what he’s doing. So, you can’t approve these people to go out there,” Kraft said.

While Cleetus McFarland has brought a lot of criticism and attention to NASCAR’s approval process, it is not the first time in recent memory that the system has been questioned.

Kyle Busch had called NASCAR’s approval process ‘broken’ in 2025

In 2025, NASCAR approved Katherine Legge largely based on her experience in IndyCar. But during the race at Phoenix, she spun and not only compromised her own race but also that of Daniel Suarez.

Following the race, Suarez wondered why NASCAR allowed someone who doesn’t have experience of racing stock cars into a stock car race.

“I believe that the process to allow somebody to run in the Cup Series should be a little bit harder for respect to the driver that is trying, to respect the fans and to respect the drivers and teams that are running full time because we work very hard to get into silly accidents like the one from last week,” he said according to FOX Sports.

While Suarez questioned the approval process, Kyle Busch simply called it ‘broken.’ He suggested that drivers should be consulted by NASCAR in order to decide who to and who not to approve.

But a year from then, the discourse around the approval process seems to be the same, if not worse. NASCAR is once again being questioned for its system, and one can only imagine the outrage if Cleetus McFarland’s Rockingham race led to an on-track incident that compromised other drivers.