YouTuber Cleetus McFarland to share Nitrocross ride with Pastrana in Utah

Travis Pastrana will step aside from his drive in Nitrocross’ premier Group E class this Saturday. His spot in the Vermont SportsCar team will be taken by YouTuber Garrett Mitchell, better known as Cleetus McFarland, for the second half of the series’ double-header event in Utah.

While Pastrana will still contest the Group E round on Friday, he will instead race in the side-by-side category in an entry originally earmarked for Mitchell on Saturday. It will mark the first time Pastrana has missed a top-class Nitrocross race since the discipline's inception as Nitro Rallycross back in 2018, and his first start in the SxS class since October last year.

“On any given month, Garrett Mitchell and I get more seat time in more random vehicles than practically anyone on earth. This Saturday at Nitrocross I’m giving up my seat in the 1000hp spaceship on wheels for Garrett to race against some of the best drivers in the world,” Pastrana posted on social media. “In exchange, Garrett is giving up his seat in his Can-Am to me.

“We will be spotting for each other and doing what we do best, having fun and living every day to the fullest.”

Pastrana admitted that his absence would harm his championship chances, but stressed that building the series was a bigger goal for him than claiming another title to add to the one he secured in 2021.

“This will probably take me out of championship contention for the series but I design the tracks and get more seat time than anyone else giving media rides and testing the jumps,” he said. “My goal, alongside Dana White, is to build the most exciting racing series on the planet and to have more fun than anyone doing it.

“We’ve bent some rules and raised some eyebrows to get a badass American redneck into Group E, but NASCAR let me race the Daytona 500 so what the hell.”

The driver change comes as Nitrocross returns to the Utah Motorsports Campus near Salt Lake City for the first time since 2021.

Nitrocross began at the track as a single round as part of the wider Nitro World Games action sports event in 2018. That contest was won by 2019 World Rallycross champion Timmy Hansen. His brother Kevin was victorious in 2019, with Timmy winning again in 2021 as the venue hosted the first round of an expanded multi-round series.

After a season off the schedule, the venue is now back with a refresh. The track still features a 130-foot gap jump over a tabletop jump at its center, but is now 65% paved – a move made to counter dust issues of the past. Among the paved sections of the track is a new high-banked turn, one of three in the lap in total.