ঝিনাদহে নির্বাচন পরবর্তী সহিংসতায় আহত ১৩
· Kaler Kantho
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Pastrana and Cleetus Plan to 'Shake & Bake'Sean Gardner - Getty ImagesThis year's season-opening NASCAR Truck Series race at Daytona is unusually star-studded. The biggest name on the 44-truck entry list is the return of three-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, but the most surprising are a pair racing for Niece Motorsports: Travis Pastrana and YouTuber Cleetus McFarland.
It will be the first-ever NASCAR national series race for McFarland, who tells Road & Track that he is entered under the name "Cleetus McFarland Mitchell" because NASCAR required him to run the last name on his driver's license. (His legal name is Garrett Mitchell.) When he saw that he would need part of his actual name on the license, he says that he told NASCAR, "That's fine, guys, but put 'Cleetus' in front of it or nobody's going to know who it is."
McFarland drove a NASCAR-spec truck for the first time on Tuesday, just three days before his debut in the series. He says that he "hit the wall with it, but had a blast." He had run ARCA, a lower-level series also owned by NASCAR, in 2025, but he sees the Truck Series racer as a more serious oval-racing machine. "It's got more power, less restrictor plate. Everyone says they're less aerodynamic, but it did not feel like that. They felt fast as hell. It had a ton of grip, and it's the fastest thing I've ever driven around an oval."
Prior to his stock car racing career, McFarland gained prominence as an automotive-themed YouTube influencer. In that career, he has occasionally raced Lincoln Town Cars and other Ford Panther platform products at tracks as big as the half-mile, high-banked Bristol Motor Speedway. Those races may draw hundreds of thousands of views, but they are hard to compare to the NASCAR truck.
"I'd say the Panther handles slightly better," McFarland joked. "[The truck has] a lot of power compared to a Crown Vic, obviously. The straightaways are easy, but it loves to corner. I kept feeding it to it, and it took all of it."
James Gilbert - Getty ImagesThe race is another major step forward in stock cars for McFarland, who says he had discussed his goal of eventually racing in the Daytona 500 with his late friend Greg Biffle. That goal turned into an opportunity in this event when Pastrana offered up the seat, and both McFarland and Pastrana will run "Be Like Biff" decals on the back of their trucks.
Pastrana is a stock car racing veteran by comparison, preparing for what would be his 50th career NASCAR national series start. Most of those came in a full-time, single-season effort in what was then the Nationwide Series with Roush-Fenway in 2013, but he has returned to stock cars regularly in the Truck Series since. He even started one Daytona 500, running the 2023 race with Denny Hamlin's 23XI Racing.
While his stock car racing experience may be limited, Pastrana has extensive experience on dirt, ice, and gravel in various rallying and rallycross championships. (He last ran in the Sno*Drift rally just last week, finishing fourth after an off-road excursion in a late stage.) His experience in his usual form of motorsports has proven a boon, he said.
"I think at Daytona, [I get] a lot of help from rally. You get bumped, rocked, rattled all around—and in rally, one thing we're used to is getting sideways," Pastrana told Road & Track. "Denny Hamlin, when I had the opportunity to run with him in the Cup race, he goes, 'Look, Daytona—stuff's going to hit the fan. You don't have the experience, you're not going to be competitive on a mile-and-a-half, or a short track, but with a restrictor plate, you can be right in there. We'll give you information, we'll give you a good car. When it hits the fan—and it will—I have faith that if anyone is going to keep that thing under him, it's going to be you.'"
"I know I have a reputation for crashing stuff," Pastrana continued, "but I have a lot of experience being sideways and trying to pull it back together. I think that's a little helpful, but most of the stuff we're doing is under 120 miles an hour on those roads."
The deal for both drivers came together quickly, in part because sponsor Black Rifle Coffee Company was also the sponsor of the event where Pastrana first suggested the opportunity to McFarland. That, McFarland said, quickly turned into a sponsorship for this. "We brought [the possibility of a deal] over to the guys from Black Rifle Coffee, and we said 'Hey, we want to do this.' They said, 'Hey, you're good. We're in.'"
Brunt Workwear is also sponsoring the pair's entries with Niece Motorsports, and the team and both sponsors are combining to donate $100,000 to veteran's care nonprofit Boot Campaign as part of the entry.
Sean Gardner - Getty ImagesWith 44 trucks entered for a maximum of 40 potential slots, Pastrana and McFarland will both have to earn their spot on the Daytona grid in a Friday afternoon qualifying session. If both accomplish that feat, their next goal is simple: Find out who to work with in the draft and get to the front.
"Trav and I have definitely talked," McFarland said, "and our plan is to shake and bake. We really should probably get a few more guys to help us, though. I know Carson [Hocevar] is down to help us, I'm sure if we find Tony [Stewart] out there and give him a nudge he'll hang out with us."
"Usually, it's just brand loyalty out there [in the draft]," Pastrana added. "With Cleetus, he's made a lot of friends, he's had a lot of fun. And the coolest part about what Cleetus does is that he has re-inspired even guys like me, that are kind of known for having fun."
"Sometimes you take it too serious. You go down to [McFarland's Panther platform race] the Freedom 500 and you see the fans, you're just running Crown Vics, you have an ear-to-ear grin no matter where you are. And you realize, 'We get to drive cars and trucks for a freakin' living, and this is awesome.' I think a lot of people who are around—they see Cleetus, they have the same mentality, and they're going to want to run with him."
Pastrana cited friendships that the pair have throughout the field, including Stewart. "My first-ever NASCAR race, first one for the championship series, was here at Daytona. Tony was up at the front mixing it up; he drops back, and my spotter says, 'Hey, Tony's coming back for you.' He picked me up, Kasey Kahne got behind me, and we went from dead last into the top five with about 15 laps to go. He ended up winning that race; I went across top 10, but I was backwards after Larson decided to put it in the stands... Tony wants to win, and he'll do whatever it takes to get there, but he also wants to see people have fun, he wants to mix it up, and he's wiling to come back and pick up a rookie. Back in 2013, that meant a lot to me."
Whether or not friendship with Stewart, Hocevar, and a variety of other big-name NASCAR drivers pays off for Niece's particularly charismatic duo remains to be seen. But Pastrana simply hopes that Friday's race will be a good time. "Hopefully, when push comes to shove, if we're around one of them, they'll give us a little bump in the right direction and we'll be close to the finish line. We'll have a shot at, really, having a lot of fun and seeing if we can make all the laps."
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