{"id":101702,"date":"2025-07-15T02:18:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T02:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/10-years-of-cleetus-garrett-mitchell-reflects-on-the-viral-moment-that-changed-his-life\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T02:18:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T02:18:26","slug":"10-years-of-cleetus-garrett-mitchell-reflects-on-the-viral-moment-that-changed-his-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/10-years-of-cleetus-garrett-mitchell-reflects-on-the-viral-moment-that-changed-his-life\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Years of Cleetus: Garrett Mitchell Reflects on the Viral Moment That Changed His Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today marks a decade since Garrett Mitchell \u2013 better known to millions as\u00a0Cleetus McFarland<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 became a household name in the world of gearheads, drag racers, and automotive content creators.<\/p>\n

The viral origin story? A goofy late-night cell phone video at Rocky Mountain Race Week 2015, shot by 1320Video founder Kyle Loftis. Mitchell, then a behind-the-scenes social media guy, slipped into a tongue-in-cheek redneck accent, delivered a now-iconic \u201cMade in America\u201d line, and with a spontaneous blurting of\u00a0\u201cCleetus McFarland!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0from Loftis\u2026 a character was born.<\/p>\n

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\u201c10 years ago today I became Cleetus,\u201d Mitchell wrote in a heartfelt post on social media. \u201cI had no idea this goofy cell phone video shot by Kyle Loftis would go viral and my name would forever be Cleetus McFarland\u2026 I\u2019m just unbelievably grateful for everything that has happened since then.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s happened since is the stuff of internet legend:
\u2022\u00a03M+ YouTube subscribers<\/strong>
\u2022\u00a0Hundreds of millions of video views<\/strong>
\u2022 A\u00a0dedicated army of fans<\/strong>\u00a0showing up for burnout contests, grudge races, and Cleetus & Cars events across the country
\u2022 And a uniquely powerful role in ushering a new generation into drag racing and car culture<\/p>\n

As DI chronicled in our 2019 cover story\u00a0The Triumph of Garrett Mitchell<\/em>, the man behind Cleetus is a rare combination of digital savvy, mechanical curiosity, and unfiltered authenticity. He\u2019s the guy who put a jet engine in an El Camino, documented the grind of making a 7-second pass in a stripped-down salvage-title Corvette, and created a new lane in drag racing entertainment.<\/p>\n

But beneath the mullet, memes, and Mountain Dew is a storyteller who gets it.<\/p>\n

\n
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\u201cMy dream was always to have a talk show,\u201d Mitchell once told us. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved making people laugh. That\u2019s my biggest thing \u2013 making people smile and laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the decade since that fateful video, Mitchell\u2019s commitment to positivity, relatability, and transparency has earned him something even more valuable than views:\u00a0trust<\/strong>. Fans feel like they\u2019re in on the journey \u2013 the wins, the breakages, the burnout-fueled madness, and all the wrenching in between.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf one of my viewers sits down after a long day of work and wants to watch a Cleetus video,\u201d Mitchell said, \u201cI\u2019ve got to be there and be doing something fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, with Freedom Factory firing on all cylinders, an ownership stake in Bradenton Motorsports Park, Cleetus & Cars expanding coast-to-coast, and millions watching every upload, Garrett Mitchell isn\u2019t just living his dream \u2013 he\u2019s helping grow the sport we all love in the most unexpected and entertaining way possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope I\u2019m a YouTuber when I\u2019m 80 years old,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re just going to keep doing what we\u2019re doing \u2013 and hopefully more people catch on and smile with us every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on July 14, 2025. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post 10 Years of Cleetus: Garrett Mitchell Reflects on the Viral Moment That Changed His Life<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today marks a decade since Garrett Mitchell \u2013 better known to millions as\u00a0Cleetus McFarland\u00a0\u2013 became a household name in the world of gearheads, drag racers, and automotive content creators. The viral origin story? A goofy late-night cell phone video at Rocky Mountain Race Week 2015, shot by 1320Video founder Kyle Loftis. Mitchell, then a behind-the-scenes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}