He's Taking This Very Seriously, Cleetus McFarland's Spotter Kevin Hamlin Breaks Down the ARCA Driver's Real Racing Ambitions

The gap between a YouTube star and a race car driver is measured not in horsepower or lap times, but in the moments nobody films. Early morning data reviews. Hours logged in the simulator. Race-by-race conversations with a spotter who has seen more of motorsport than most drivers ever will.

For Garrett Mitchell, the 31-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska, known across the internet as Cleetus McFarland, that gap is narrowing in ways that are now drawing notice far beyond his 4.6 million subscribers. On a recent episode of Door Bumper Clear, Kevin Hamlin (who spots for Mitchell in the ARCA Menards Series and for Alex Bowman in the NASCAR Cup Series) offered a revealing assessment of the driver he has guided through the superspeedway circuit.

Kevin Hamlin is not a casual observer of racing talent. The Snohomish, Washington native began racing quarter midgets at the age of six and went on to win back-to-back NASCAR Northwest Series championships in 2001 and 2002, becoming the youngest series champion in that series’ history at 21 years and six months of age.

He holds the record for most consecutive laps led in the Northwest Series at 275, spanning three races. After his driving career wound down, he transitioned to spotting, a role he describes as being like a “retired quarterback turned offensive coordinator”” and has been Alex Bowman’s eyes from the spotters’ stand at Hendrick Motorsports since 2018, the same year Bowman took over the No. 88 Chevrolet.

It was Hamlin who first connected Mitchell with Rette Jones Racing. The introduction came through Greg Biffle, the late NASCAR veteran, who, along with Hamlin, simply wanted to make sure Mitchell had a team that could put him in a safe car. Rette Jones Racing co-owner and crew chief Mark Rette has recalled that he received separate phone calls from someone named “Cleetus McFarland” and someone named “Garrett Mitchell” before realizing they were the same person.

1. NASCAR Insider Confirms Cleetus McFarland is Reshaping ARCA’s Future

The exchange between Brett Griffin and Kevin Hamlin on the Door Bumper Clear podcast represents one of the most substantive on-record assessments of Mitchell’s racing trajectory offered by anyone directly involved in his career. When asked about McFarland, Hamlin said “He’s taking this very seriously.” He continued, “There’s some people that are super excited that he’s here doing this, and there’s some that aren’t. But the eyes that he has brought to our sport is proof in the pudding with the numbers and everything. And even on, you know, my little side, he put something on Instagram and my followers doubled in like a day. I hope he doesn’t try to move up too fast. I’m glad he’s looking to do more ARCA stuff."

2. Cleetus McFarland’s Second-Place Finish at Talladega Validates Pro Racing Ambitions

The raw results of Mitchell’s ARCA campaign tell a story that is still unfinished but no longer dismissible. He made his ARCA debut at Daytona in 2025, driving the No. 30 Ford for Rette Jones Racing, and finished 30th after being collected in a multi-car crash. It was the kind of debut that offered few conclusions. By his third start, at Talladega in April 2025, he overcame engine problems to finish 10th, a result that drew genuine attention across the paddock and saw his in-car camera feed attract more than 70,000 viewers on NASCAR’s own YouTube channel, a record number for the series. In 2026, the results sharpened further. At Rockingham in the ARCA Menards Series East division, Mitchell finished fourth; his best result in any form of ARCA competition to that point. Then, at Talladega in April 2026, driving the No. 30 Ford in the Alabama Manufactured Housing 200, he led laps at a superspeedway for the first time in his career, ran door-to-door with the field, and ultimately finished second in a photo-finish thriller won by Andy Jankowiak. In his post-race interview, Mitchell was characteristically unguarded: “What an insane day of racing. The greatest race I’ve ever been a part of in my life right there. My team, Rette Jones Racing, Kevin Hamlin, did such a good job… Honestly, probably the most fun I’ve ever had with clothes on.” The 2026 Talladega ARCA result stands as the clearest on-track evidence yet that the improvement Hamlin described on the podcast is real and measurable. Leading laps at Talladega is not an accident of circumstance. It requires an understanding of drafting dynamics, restarts, and race management that takes most drivers multiple seasons to develop. Carson Hocevar, a full-time NASCAR Cup competitor with Spire Motorsports, was among those who publicly acknowledged Mitchell’s performance, watching from the sidelines and visibly supporting his run.

3. Is Cleetus McFarland Moving Too Fast?

The critical response to Mitchell’s racing ambitions has been organized and vocal. Rick Ware Racing competition director Tommy Baldwin stated plainly that Mitchell is “hurting himself” by racing in the O’Reilly series before developing further in lower levels, adding “we’re not against Cleetus” but questioning whether the timing serves anyone’s interests. The Door Bumper Clear crew itself has been cited as among those critical of NASCAR’s decision to approve Mitchell without requiring more lower-series experience first. What the critics have not grappled with seriously enough are the audience metrics. Mitchell’s ARCA races have drawn viewership numbers that are genuinely unprecedented for the series. His in-car feed alone pulling over 70,000 viewers on a single stream represents an audience development win that ARCA’s traditional promotional infrastructure could not replicate in years of conventional marketing. The question of pace, whether Mitchell is moving up the NASCAR ladder too quickly, remains the legitimate center of the debate. Griffin’s observation on the podcast that ARCA success is “at this moment more beneficial to our sport than just saying ‘all right go run 30th in a O’Reilly race’” is a commercially sophisticated argument as much as a sporting one. A driver who contends for wins in ARCA builds a narrative arc. A driver who runs multiple laps down in the O’Reilly series creates content that erodes the story. The Nashville O’Reilly race on May 30, 2026, will be Mitchell’s second start at that level for RCR, and it will be watched through exactly that lens. Mitchell’s scheduled calendar for the remainder of 2026 offers a clear test of the development thesis that Hamlin and Griffin outlined. He is set to race in the ARCA Menards Series at Michigan International Speedway on June 5, followed by his second O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start with RCR at Nashville Superspeedway on May 30, a 188-lap event scheduled for broadcast on CW at 7:30 PM ET. Nashville will mark the first time Mitchell races an O’Reilly-level car at a 1.333-mile intermediate track, a different challenge than the flat, short Rockingham oval where his debut unfolded.

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