“He’s only hurting himself by doing what he’s doing,” Tommy Baldwin said earlier this season, shortly after Cleetus McFarland made his Truck Series debut. While his fans did cheer his runs, there were many in NASCAR, including Baldwin, who didn’t fall short on the criticism. And it was quite understandable, too. Months later, however, when the two sat down for a conversation, Baldwin went on to point out the issues in NASCAR’s system.

Here’s the thing: McFarland was criticized for moving through the NASCAR ranks a bit too quickly. He had no full-time experience in the Late Model or the ARCA Series when he made his Truck Series debut, and as expected, it showed. He crashed at Daytona just on the sixth lap of the Truck race, and his recent O’Reilly Auto Parts Series run at Nashville, mixed with spins and a penalty, wasn’t very impressive, either. However, McFarland can take the criticism well, the part where being a YouTuber first, racer second helps. But this isn’t just about Cleetus McFarland; it’s the broader system that NASCAR is encouraging with his early debut that invokes some fear for Tommy Baldwin.

“Cleetus don’t care about negativity,” he said on the Door Bumper Clear podcast. “But these young kids with negativity, it ruins their life. And that’s my thing about the process. Again, I had nothing to do with Cleetus, right? He was just a great example of going, ‘Okay, we have a perfect example of how the system is broke.’ Not Cleetus is broke, but how the system is broke.”

When it comes to professional racing, most of the upcoming drivers spend years in Late Models, then ARCA, and then only a handful of them make it to the top level. This was the case for even Kasey Kahne back in the day, as Baldwin further mentioned. He ran tests 14 times before racing at Daytona, and this even included a full-race test at Rockingham. This was the only way to know if he was prepared to take on the challenge that NASCAR’s national level of racing puts drivers through.

However, Richard Childress had something else planned when they signed McFarland. As Childress and Austin Dillon mentioned, they were eyeing the massive new fanbase behind McFarland, which would benefit the sport. Let’s be realistic, the merchandise sales would probably profit the team far more.

At the same time, this invited the massive criticism he faced from the media, insiders, and even some old-school NASCAR fans.

Baldwin, in a March episode of DBC, after McFarland’s RCR deal was announced, didn’t soften this: “He can still bring those followers, but why don’t you bring those followers eight months later when you are a little more invested. And what a journey it would be for his followers to go through all that stuff, you know what I’m saying? The guy don’t even know the difference between a Pro Late Model and a Super Late Model.”

However, his own fan base backed him up, and for the most part, Cleetus McFarland remained unfazed.

“The gauntlet of making it to the top on YouTube is so much more harsh than NASCAR media,” he said while speaking on the Door Bumper Clear podcast. “You see some comments on your videos, probably like YouTube is vicious and, I’m good with the criticism.”

But while NASCAR did give the green light to Cleetus McFarland to race at the top competition with such a lack of experience behind the wheel, it will only open the doors further for more, younger drivers to pursue the same. Understandably, not all of them would have millions of subscribers to back them when they face harsh criticism for the smallest of mistakes, and this could put them under unnecessary pressure. Furthermore, this could disrupt the system NASCAR has been following for years, as Freddie Kraft suggested in the same episode.

“It’s the fact that like, okay, like how are you going to not approve the next guy because you just said, you know, wrecking your truck is okay. You know, like that was our biggest thing, where do we draw the line of now anybody’s approved or do we have to have…”

Despite all the criticism and the discussions, however, McFarland feels it was essential for him to skip ranks and run those O’Reilly Auto Parts and Truck Series races.

“At this point, if NASCAR doesn’t approve a guy like me to go out and do it, then I can never learn,” he mentioned while speaking on the DBC podcast.

In fact, he is preparing to carry this learning into his next Truck Series race. Niece Motorsports recently announced that he would be running his second Truck race of the year at Michigan soon, and McFarland has an interesting way to prepare for it.

Cleetus McFarland is following the reverse approach to improve his Truck runs

While most drivers first tend to master their roots and then move to the more challenging series, Cleetus McFarland seems to be making the most of the opportunity he has been given.

As mentioned earlier, his NOAPS run at the Nashville Superspeedway was nothing short of disappointing. He spun multiple times and even attracted a penalty from NASCAR. However, he is planning to extract the most from this performance to improve his upcoming Truck Series run.

“I’m pretty excited. I think driving when you drive these and then you go back down to like ARCA or Truck power, it’s a lot more fun. Like, you know, it’s like driving a slower car faster is more fun. So, I’m looking forward to getting back in the truck a lot. Like, when I went from this back to ARCA, my confidence was just through the roof,” he told Frontstretch after his second NOAPS race.

This certainly seems like an interesting approach, and in some respects, it also makes sense. After his tough week at Daytona in the Truck Series, Cleetus McFarland almost won the ARCA race at Talladega, finishing in second place, showcasing massive improvement. However, this also reveals NASCAR’s lack of uniformity in one way or another. The sport could now be opening its doors to newer drivers with a lack of experience, which might as well end up hurting the overall competitiveness.