Cleetus McFarland to serve as grand marshal for NASCAR Truck Series race at Michigan

In a bit of a rare feat, YouTube sensation Cleetus McFarland will pull double-duty at Michigan International Speedway this weekend. He will serve as the grand marshal of the DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 in the NASCAR Truck Series.

He will also race in the event. It will be his second race of the season after making his debut at Daytona.

Cleetus McFarland will drive the No. 4 Chevrolet for Niece Motorsports. But before that, he’ll fire up the crowd with the most famous words in motorsports.

“Bringing a wheelman like Cleetus McFarland to the heart of the automotive capital is a perfect pairing,” president of Michigan International Speedway Joe Fowler said, per Speedway Digest. “Cleetus is a natural-born entertainer and one of the biggest names in racing today — there’s no doubt he’s going to energize the crowd before putting on a show for our fans as the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series returns to the Irish Hills.”

As noted, McFarland’s last start in a truck came at Daytona. It didn’t go so well.

In the Daytona race, Cleetus McFarland was involved in a wreck and finished 37th. After the race, the YouTube star shared his reaction to his Truck Series debut.

“It was insane from the start. We were immediately three-wide, which I wasn’t expecting. … I was having the time of my life, literally, and I just did not check myself before I wrecked myself,” McFarland told FOX pit reporter Amanda Busick after the end of Stage 1. “Got loose coming out of (Turn) 4 and I was just flying. I put too much wheel into it because I was getting a little tight, because we were freaking three-wide from the second lap on. … I overcorrected to the left like an idiot, that’s something Biff did not teach me, and put myself on a trajectory to slam into the wall, wrecked the truck, and now here I stand in the worst spot to do an interview in the entire Daytona Speedway.”

Cleetus McFarland raced last weekend in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Nashville. He finished in 35th place. He also put together a 32nd-place finish at Rockingham earlier in the year at that level.

He’s had a bit more success in the ARCA Menards Series. In that campaign, he has tallied a second-place finish at Talladega, an 11th-place finish at Daytona and a 20th-place finish at Kansas.