Niece Motorsports Duo of McFarland and Pastrana Ready to Deliver in Daytona Truck Race
By David Morgan, Associate Editor
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – They may be NASCAR’s version of the Bash Brothers, but all jokes aside, the Niece Motorsports duo of internet personality Cleetus McFarland and action sports star Travis Pastrana are hoping Friday night in Daytona ends with them in contention for a Truck Series win.
Under the watchful eye of the late Greg Biffle, who perished in a plane crash in December, McFarland, the alter-ego of Garrett Mitchell, burst onto the scene at Daytona a year ago when he made his stock car racing debut in ARCA.
Following that race, his star has been on the rise, with him running three other events in ARCA, including Talladega, Charlotte, and Bristol.
McFarland noted that his dream has long been to race in the Daytona 500, but Biffle was quick to bring him back down to reality and ushered him along on a more incremental path, which McFarland explained led him to his debut in the Truck Series this weekend – thanks to a helping hand from Pastrana and Niece Motorsports.
“Well, I really have been trying to climb the ranks slowly. When I got into this with Biff, I called him and I said, I want to run the Daytona 500. And he was like, I mean you just can’t,” said McFarland.
“And I was so excited. I was like, I want to run the 500. That was my only goal and now that I realize how good all the other drivers are and how fast the cars are, I’m like, wow, I definitely cannot race the Daytona 500.
“Biff was right, and I’ve been slowly, I’ve been really enjoying ARCA and that level of competition. It’s been good for me. I’ve learned a lot. This truck thing happened purely because Travis Pastrana is an amazing human being and pretty much handed me the opportunity to do it by putting me in touch with Niece Motorsports, Black Rifle Coffee and BRUNT Workwear. It all came together because of Travis a hundred percent.”
Pastrana was quick to give McFarland his credit for being capable of the position he’s found himself in this weekend at Daytona.
“Don’t let him fool you. He’s a hell of a wheel man. And I wouldn’t even have brought it up because everyone’s like, oh, YouTubers are this and that. I went to the Freedom 500, realized there’s a lot of really good drivers and at the end of the day, one of the best drivers I’ve ever met at driving anything,” said Pastrana.
“…He sells himself short. He’s one of the best wheelmen, just natural. He drives more vehicles than almost. Anyway, he jumps into a plane race and freaking wins that, jumps into boat races wins that. He can drive anything.
“And as Denny Hamlin told me when I was trying to lobby for a spot of the 500, he goes, look, these guys have been working their whole life to learn how to drive NASCAR. But when you put them in a restrictor plate race here at Daytona, the biggest thing is that you keep having fun. You keep being aware of everything that’s going on around you.
“…But if you don’t make so many mistakes here, someone like Cleetus who can drift anything, who can drive anything. When people start bumping and shoving…I tried the Crown Vics, I thought that was a joke out here. I was like, sure, I’ll go running Crown Vics around Daytona. But when we got here I was bumping and shoving and moving this guy and he stayed right on that line and I said, you know what? We’re going to have a lot of fun.”
McFarland continued on that he wasn’t really looking to move up to Trucks so soon, but now that he’s here, he’s ready to take on the challenge. He added that the goal is still to make it to the Daytona 500 one day, but he’s not in any hurry, when it’s meant to happen, it’ll happen.
“I needed to start moving up the ranks. So, thanks to Travis, I’m getting that opportunity to move up and I hope to keep progressing, but I’m just trying to take it slow and eventually work my way to the top and make it to the 500,” he said.
“But I don’t want to be one of those guys who lobbies for some sort of provisional and then ends up just getting spanked every weekend. So, the big tracks, restrictor plate tracks are a lot of fun. It’s easy for me to be competitive. You’ve mentioned the intermediate and the short tracks. Very challenging. I mean, I was racing at Rockingham earlier this week. Wow, is that fast! Wow, is Bristol hard too. I mean extremely challenging.
“So, what I guess I’m trying to say is I got a lot to learn and I need more seat time, more time in arca, more time in late models, maybe with Ricky Brooks and just get better.”
As for Pastrana, what brought him back to NASCAR and Daytona for the first time since 2023?
Even if this style of racing isn’t in his wheelhouse, he’s just here to go out and have fun and hopefully be in the mix when the checkered flag falls on Friday night.
“Honestly, it’s the fun. I mean, threaten me with a good time, we’re going to be there,” Pastrana said of the draw to being back in Daytona.
“The coolest part right now is the sponsorships that we have. We got BRUNT Workwear, which is blue collar. I met those guys here at the Daytona 500. They love everything about NASCAR. All their employees love NASCAR. All the people that support BRUNT Workwear love NASCAR. And they’re like, dude, we want to go down to Daytona.
“And I’m like, look, I’m not the best pavement driver. I came from motocross. I went to rally, went in doubt, throttle out all wheel drive, Gymkhana videos, that kind of stuff. I like being sideways. That’s not how you go fast on pavement for sure. But BRUNT Workwear said, hey, we really don’t care. Yeah, we want to win. I want to win. I want to be as competitive as possible.
“Went to Niece Motorsports, they were like, hey, you know what, we’re going to get you out there. And literally the next week I’m talking to Cleetus and I’m like, dude, you got to go down.”
As they say, the rest is history.
When the green flag drops on Friday night, McFarland will roll off from 12th place, just ahead of Pastrana in 13th. They will be joined by two other trucks in the Niece Motorsports lineup, with Andres Perez De Lara starting 28th and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. making his Truck Series debut in 30th.
The Fresh from Florida 250 will roll off at 7:30 pm ET on FOX Sports 1.
