NASCAR chief issues official statement after Cleetus McFarland dealt major setback

John Probst, NASCAR’s Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer, has issued a statement after Cleetus McFarland was denied approval to race at Talladega next weekend.

Despite his lack of experience, McFarland landed a deal to race with Richard Childress Racing in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series at select tracks back in March, making his debut at Rockingham Speedway on Saturday.

McFarland was hoping to gain approval and be back in the car for next weekend's O'Reilly Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. However, McFarland confirmed on Tuesday that he had been denied approval to compete in the event.

"I wanted you to hear it from me first that I've been denied by NASCAR to run Talladega in my O'Reilly Series car," McFarland said in a video statement on Facebook.

"Made my O'Reilly's debut last Saturday with hopes of getting approval for Talladega, but they did not see enough."

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NASCAR statement on Cleetus McFarland denial

Now, speaking on the Hauler Talk podcast, Probst has shared NASCAR's perspective on McFarland and what the stock car racing series wants to see from him moving forward.

“We’re all huge Cleetus fans,” Probst explained. “We all watch his videos and are certainly very appreciative of everything he’s done in our sport and will continue to do in our sport.

“He is approved right now for O’Reilly Series short tracks, which means he’s good for all of ARCA, all of Truck and then O’Reilly up through the short tracks.

"We’d like to see more out of Cleetus in the short tracks. So we’re not saying no, but there is more that we would like to see out of Cleetus before we would approve him for Talladega.”

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While the above is undoubtedly a setback, McFarland is realistic about where he is at present and knows he needs more experience under his belt if he is to get NASCAR approval for superspeedway events moving forward.

"I need more windshield time," he admitted. "Regardless of whether it's in an O'Reilly's car an ARCA car, or a truck, more windshield time is gonna help me.

"I got a lot to learn guys. So this isn't as much of a step back or a push down as it seems. [It's] a little bit of a kick in the nuts, but I just gotta get out there in the other cars and do as much learning as possible.

"Then, hopefully, I'll get to run Daytona [and] Talladega next year."