Ever since Cleetus McFarland and Richard Childress Racing announced their deal, NASCAR has been a target of criticism from fans and drivers alike. After all, he had just one Truck race and four ARCA starts to his name before being approved to race in the O’Reilly Series in Rockingham. However, NASCAR decided against giving him the approval in Talladega, and President Steve O’Donnell has finally revealed the next steps the YouTuber/driver has to follow.

NASCAR President comments on approval process for Cleetus McFarland

During a recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, O’Donnell revealed the pathway McFarland would have to follow to start his racing journey in tougher tracks.

“It’s kind of every race. So, now, he’ll go to the next race. We’ll see. Obviously, there’s some progression we need to see,” said O’Donnell. “I applaud the team. Look, it’s a tough call. He’s a hugely popular driver. But these are the best drivers in the world, and we’ve got to make sure that we’ve got the right guys out there. There’s always controversy of who’s approved, who’s not approved, but I think it was the right call. Let’s see how he does it in the next race. Certainly, we’d like to see him keep progressing. But he’s got to do it the right way.”

McFarland is one of the biggest names in the American motorsports landscape. He has a YouTube subscriber base of over 4 million, and nearly 1 million followers on Instagram. A big argument from those who support his cause in NASCAR is that the sport itself can benefit from his fandom.

However, his critics argue that his lack of experience can hurt other drivers and their race results. This was almost the case during the Truck race at Daytona when his first stage spin came to the detriment of a lot of other drivers. Despite that, he was approved for the O’Reilly race at Rockingham.

In the build-up to that, he grabbed a lot of headlines with a 4th place finish in the ARCA race at Rockingham. But in the O’Reilly race, he finished outside the top 30 again.

Therefore him getting approved for the O’Reilly race was something Freddie Kraft had an objection with, which he mentioned to Steve O’Donnell during the DBC podcast.

“Instead of talking about how great he did in the ARCA race, we’re talking about, ‘Did he do enough to get approved?'”remarked Kraft.

He suggested McFarland to run more ARCA races, learn the craft of stock car racing, and become a better driver. He added that the YouTuber would have to show more to support his cause, which was also the argument NASCAR made in denying him approval for Talladega.

This was, however, not the first time NASCAR came under fire for approving an inexperienced driver.

NASCAR was criticized for their approval process in 2025 by a Cup regular

Following the Cup race at Phoenix, Daniel Suarez called out NASCAR’s approval process as his race result suffered because of Cup debutant Katherine Legge. The Trackhouse driver was on course for his first top 10 finish of the season when Legge’s spin ahead of him led to contact, ending Legge’s race and causing damage to Suarez’s car.

In a post-race vlog, Daniel Suarez expressed his frustrations with the sanctioning body allowing Legge to race among the regulars.

“Nothing against her, you know, completely how I am. I hope girls can get into the sport, I hope. The problem is there’s nothing wrong with her. What is wrong is NASCAR?” Suárez said. “They cannot allow somebody with no experience to run in the Cup Series, plain and simple. Plain and simple.”

One imagines that, given the criticism NASCAR faced because of Katherine Legge, Cleetus McFarland’s Daytona scare, and the high-risk nature of superspeedway racing, the YouTuber was denied approval for Talladega.

Whether he can earn enough credibility to change that in the future on merit, that is something only time will tell.