On January 28, 2009, Mitchell started his YouTube channel. He became the social media manager for car media company 1320Video around the same time. He eventually left 1320Video to pursue a full-time career with his own YouTube channel.
In 2015, Mitchell adopted the moniker "Cleetus McFarland" after a character Kyle Loftis created that went viral at the annual Rocky Mountain Race Week with Tom Bailey. The name Cleetus was quickly adopted by his YouTube channel. Mitchell would then go on to create a bodyless Chevrolet Corvette C5 with an exo-cage named "Leroy". Leroy built a major fan following online, winning numerous trophies and setting both personal and world records. After finding career success as a YouTube content creator and racing enthusiast, he built a purpose-built race car from a Chevrolet El Camino known as "Mullet".
In January 2020, Mitchell bought the abandoned Desoto Speedway, a 3/8 mi Asphalt Oval & Figure 8 Track in Manatee County, Florida. He later renamed the track to Freedom Factory.
On April 6, 2022, it was announced on The Checkered Flag that Mitchell would make his debut in the Stadium Super Trucks at Long Beach, California, racing the No. 1776 truck as Cleetus McFarland. In the weekend's second of two races, he was leading on the final lap until the last jump, when he spun out after his truck hit the ground. This left Robby Gordon to claim the win. Another attempt came at the Music City Grand Prix in August, but he was involved in crashes in both races. The second race saw him get squeezed into the wall while racing Gavin Harlien and Robert Stout, causing him to flip onto his roof. He invited the trucks to his Bristol 1000 at Bristol Motor Speedway a month later, where he finished third in Race 2.
On November 6, 2022, Mitchell & his crew won first place after eliminating Carlos Olivo in the McLeod Racing Warriors VS Tres Cuarto category of the 26th Annual Haltech World Cup Finals Import & Domestic Drag Races. His Chevrolet El Camino (Mullet) managed an elapsed time of 6.474 seconds at a top speed of 222.95 mph on the final round. Returning to the event in 2023, Mitchell won in the Grannas Racing Stick Shift class driving his body-less Chevrolet Corvette "Leroy" with time of 7.325 and speed of 203.95 mph in the finals.
In 2025, it was revealed that Mitchell would participate in the pre-season test for the ARCA Menards Series at Daytona International Speedway. He drove the No. 30 Ford for Rette Jones Racing as Garrett Mitchell. On January 15, it was announced on Facebook that Mitchell would drive in the season opener at Daytona for RJR also as Garrett Mitchell. He finished in 30th after being involved in a multi-car crash. Mitchell would continue to announce that he would return with the team at Talladega, Charlotte, and the ARCA Menards Series East combination race at Bristol.
After the race at Bristol, it was confirmed that Mitchell will return to ARCA in 2026 on a partial schedule. He ran the season opener again at Daytona and finished 11th. He competed in the East Series race at Rockingham alongside his friend George Siciliano (referred to as "LS George" or "Squirrel McNutt"), where he would finish in fourth place. They both ran at Kansas, where McFarland finished twentieth. They also ran at Talladega, where McFarland finished second.
On February 4, 2026, it was announced that McFarland would begin testing at Rockingham Speedway to attempt to get approval to make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut in the No. 4 for Niece Motorsports. He started 12th at Daytona but got loose off turn 4 on lap 6 and hit the inside wall, finishing 37th.
On March 4, 2026, it was announced that McFarland would drive three races in the No. 33 for Richard Childress Racing starting at Rockingham in April. McFarland planned to run the April Talladega race, but was not approved due to lack of experience in NASCAR.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
Gallery · 1 related image
