Freddie Kraft comments on difference of treatment between Cleetus McFarland and Katherine Legge by NASCAR world

In 2025, YouTuber Cleetus McFarland competed in multiple ARCA events, including the season-opening race at Daytona and the regular season feature at Talladega Superspeedway. Like McFarland, British driver Katherine Legge also made her official NASCAR debut this year at Phoenix Raceway in March.

However, Freddie Kraft thinks that they are not ready to drive a NASCAR-sanctioned vehicle yet. So, he believes oval racing is essentially setting them up for failure. He also argued that both of them receive very different treatment from fans for their poor performances.

Addressing the same during the latest episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Kraft said,

“Everybody's favorite guy in the world this week, for this year, is Cleetus McFarland. Zippy (Gregory C. Zipadelli) leaves him out of the racetrack for his first green flag restart at an unrestricted car to be on the front row, and he ends up wrecking half the field. Do I think Cleetus did anything egregious? No, he made a mistake. But everybody wanted to give him a pass because we all love him.”

“But if that was Katherine Legge on the outside of the front row and she made that mistake, with similar oval track experience, she'd be getting roasted on the internet because she doesn't belong there,” he added.

Legge will still run multiple races throughout the remainder of the 2025 season. Next up for the Guildford native is the June 15 Cup Series race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, where she will be competing under the banner of Live Fast Motorsports with a sponsorship from e.l.f. Cosmetics.

McFarland, on the other hand, will be seen racing next at the ARCA East Series finale on September 11. He is also eyeing the 2027 Daytona 500 for his Cup debut.

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When Cleetus McFarland apologized for causing ARCA pileup at Charlotte

About a week back, Cleetus McFarland bettered his top-10 performance at Talladega by delivering a ninth-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway. That was indeed an impressive show from the Nebraska native, given that he spun out with 62 laps to go.

His No. 30 Rette Jones Racing car hit Isabella Robusto’s ride, catching several others in the mess. McFarland’s car, however, sustained only minor damage to its left front.

The 30-year-old apologized to his fellow racers during a post-race interview with Fox Sports 1. He said (quoted by motorsport.com),

“I want to start out by apologizing to the team that I took out. I think it was several cars. I just feel terrible. Every time I go racing, I don't want to get taken out. I've felt it. It sucks. I've been sent home and I made a complete rookie maneuver on the restart.”

All eyes are on Bristol, which happens to be Cleetus McFarland’s next stop. Named Bush’s Beans 200, the 200-lap race will be televised on FS1, 5:30 pm ET onwards. Fans can also listen to radio updates on ARCARacing.com around the same time.