A big topic of discussion this week has been Cleetus McFarland and his two-year deal at Richard Childress Racing. Cleetus will race at Rockingham this season, as well as compete in the superspeedway races, in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Kyle Busch has thoughts about that.
During his time at Richard Childress Racing, Kyle Busch has been very open and honest. At times, he’s thrown criticism at the RCR organization. He did a little of that on Saturday at Phoenix.
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While speaking to the media at Phoenix, Rowdy went as far as to say his son has more races under his belt than the famed YouTuber. Not pulling any punches.
Cleetus McFarland preparing to qualify in the NASCAR Truck Series at Daytona. (Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
((Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images))
“I mean, he just, I don’t know,” Busch said, via Jeff Gluck of The Athletic. “I don’t know how many races he’s run. Denny Hamlin ran 10,000 before he got here, right? So, I don’t know if Cleetus has run 10 or not, but there’s definitely a need to having ample experience. My son has probably run more races than he has, and he’s 10 years old. You know what I mean? So, I don’t think that sits well with many of us.”
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Cleetus McFarland has received criticism for moving up the NASCAR ranks too quickly. It has even brought up questions surrounding NASCAR’s approval process, and the decision from RCR to sign him to a multi-year deal.
For those who don’t know, McFarland made his first start in ARCA at Daytona in 2025. He earned top-10 finishes at Talladega and Charlotte that season. He finished P17 at Bristol in a rather eye-opening race. Since then, he has made his Truck Series debut. However, that lasted less than two laps as McFarland spun out and wrecked for a P37 DNF. He has now been approved to race at Rockingham in the O’Reilly Series.
Debates have raged online between fans and those in the industry. Now, Kyle Busch has made his thoughts known about this. Busch doesn’t care if RCR is the team that did it, or that McFarland is essentially a teammate now; he’s going to be honest about it. We will see if the deal ends up successful or another whiff from Childress.
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Mar 7, 2026, where it first appeared in the Racing section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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