Cleetus McFarland to make his NASCAR Truck debut at Daytona

YouTuber Cleetus McFarland, aka Garett Mitchell, is showing just how serious he is about the dream to compete in NASCAR’s Daytona 500 one day.

Carrying on despite the tragic death of his mentor and NASCAR legend Greg Biffle, Mitchell now plans to run double duty at Daytona. Along with running the ARCA Menard’s Series season-opener at Daytona, he also plans to make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at the iconic superspeedway.

He will drive the No. 4 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado, pending approval from NASCAR after taking part in a test at Rockingham later this week. Black Rifle Coffee will back the effort.

Mitchell, 30, made his ARCA debut at Daytona last year. While it ended in a crash, he returned to run four ARCA races throughout the 2025 season. He scored a top ten finish at Talladega and at Charlotte, where he recorded a career-best finish of ninth. 

He plans to run at least four more ARCA races this year, but his stock car racing schedule will now include a Truck Series race.

Mitchell recently said that he considered giving up his pursuit of a career in stock cars after the plane crash that claimed the life of the Biffle family and three others, but has instead decided to focus on one day making it onto the grid for NASCAR’s biggest race.

The Truck race at Daytona is already packed with talent. Beyond the regulars who compete there every week, the entry list includes NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, extreme sports star Travis Pastrana, two former Daytona 500 winners (Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael McDowell), and a handful of other full-time Cup drivers. Both Stenhouse and Pastrana will actually be teammates of Mitchell at Niece for Daytona.