Who brings more eyes to NASCAR? Cleetus or MJ?

wi_racefan

wi_racefan

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Thought it could be good off week topic

IMO it's probably Cleetus, particularly in demographic that Nascar wants. We've gotten past the point that younger people know MJ as a basketball player and now he's the shoe guy.
 
wi_racefan said:
We've gotten past the point that younger people know MJ as a basketball player
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Not even close. Michael Jordan is the GOAT and still the standard. There are highlight reels of him all the time.

And 90s Nostalgia is the hottest trend going in everything and Michael Jordan was a massive part of the 90s. We have people wearing "retro" NASCAR attire because it's in fashion.

Plus Michael Jordan is North Carolina sports royalty. If there was a NC Mt. Rushmore, it would for sure include MJ, Dale and Coach K.

MJ competes in the big fishing tournament here and there are massive ass crowds that come just to see his boat.

Not to underestimate Cleetus McFarland's reach. But the only YouTuber I think could pull the kind of reach Michael Jordan can is Mr. Beast.
 
HoneyBadger said:
Not even close. Michael Jordan is the GOAT and still the standard. There are highlight reels of him all the time.

And 90s Nostalgia is the hottest trend going in everything and Michael Jordan was a massive part of the 90s. We have people wearing "retro" NASCAR attire because it's in fashion.

Plus Michael Jordan is North Carolina sports royalty. If there was a NC Mt. Rushmore, it would for sure include MJ, Dale and Coach K.

MJ competes in the big fishing tournament here and there are massive ass crowds that come just to see his boat.

Not to underestimate Cleetus McFarland's reach. But the only YouTuber I think could pull the kind of reach Michael Jordan can is Mr. Beast.
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Have you talked to any younger people outside of NC if they know who MJ is? My 13 year old step son literally didn't know he even played basketball. He hasn't played in 23 years, thats a whole generation.
 
Cleetus is a pimple on Michael Jordan’s ass. Jordan is known around the world, Cleetus to known to American young people. No comparison.
 
Naitch said:
Cleetus is a pimple on Michael Jordan’s ass. Jordan is known around the world, Cleetus to known to American young people. No comparison.
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Yeah in the grand scheme, but my question is does he actually bring more eyes to nascar? Personally I've never heard anyone say yeah I started watching because MJ owns a car. Maybe I just dont talk to the right people.
 
wi_racefan said:
Yeah in the grand scheme, but my question is does he actually bring more eyes to nascar? Personally I've never heard anyone say yeah I started watching because MJ owns a car. Maybe I just dont talk to the right people.
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I don’t know anyone who has ever heard of Cleetus so this is probably social circle dependent.
 
Naitch said:
Cleetus is a pimple on Michael Jordan’s ass. Jordan is known around the world, Cleetus to known to American young people. No comparison.
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Agree that Jordan is known world wide, but I doubt many will tune in to a NASCAR race to watch Jordan be an owner. Cleetus is a driver and has quite a social media following and those eyes will tune in to the broadcast to see how he does. Even when it doesn't go well for Cletus, his interviews are entertaining and I watch racing to be entertained.
I vote Cletus.
 
wi_racefan said:
Have you talked to any younger people outside of NC if they know who MJ is? My 13 year old step son literally didn't know he even played basketball. He hasn't played in 23 years, thats a whole generation.
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I don’t think these influencers and YouTubers move the needle that much.

Hailie Deegan was supposed to move the needle and didn’t.
 
800,000 people watched Cleetus's own in car stream his first ARCA race at Daytona. That was an ARCA race folks. I could care less who is more popular, but with over 5 million followers, Cleetus is putting more eyes on the sport. Cleetus is much more visible media wise than Jordan is, but MJ is all in.
 
DIDIT said:
Agree that Jordan is known world wide, but I doubt many will tune in to a NASCAR race to watch Jordan be an owner. Cleetus is a driver and has quite a social media following and those eyes will tune in to the broadcast to see how he does. Even when it doesn't go well for Cletus, his interviews are entertaining and I watch racing to be entertained.
I vote Cletus.
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Do people who aren’t already car people and racing people know who Cleetus is?
 
HoneyBadger said:
Do people who aren’t already car people and racing people know who Cleetus is?
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Almost 5 million are subscribers to Cleetus's mainly motorsports channel. I'm sure some of them are stick n ball fans besides, but if that is what a person mainly is is a stick n ball fan, they probably don't know who Cleetus is. People in the sport know who he is. He owns a race track and a drag strip.
 
Here is Cleetus's side kick called squirrel McNut getting some of the credit for record breaking attendance for an ARCA east race of all things. I watched the race. He was mobbed by fans before the race.
 
Daytripper said:
I had never heard of him before Daytona.
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You have heard of him now. One of the problems for many is they either don't have the bandwidth, or they have never watched any of his videos on Youtube. He has had Dale Jr. Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Michael Waltrip, all of the RFR drivers, trips to Dega etc on his channel.
Here is a best of 2025 clip.

​

 
LibertyU24 said:
If MJ was Driving a car it would be MJ. To me its neither. I enjoy watching skilled drivers. I dont watch racing for a car owner.
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I've wondered something similar. How many true stick and ball MJ fans have crossed over to Nascar because MJ is a team owner. It seems a little far fetched. Pretty sure the fans who were both B'bal and Nascae were pleased, but I wonder about stick and ball fans flocking in droves to watch Nascar. The ratings aren't showing that.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Is this someone else who will be racing this weekend?
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Yeah in ARCA at Rockingham...on flo and the Nascar channel I believe. Cleetus also. Posted in the ARCA thread. I would think more good numbers for the broadcast. Dystany Spurlock is the 1st black female driver in Nascar. She comes from a motorcycle drag racing background. They had her for one race in the Carl Long car, but she did so well she's running Rockingham. First time in the car and at that track she ran 7th at Hickory. I watched as much as the cameras allowed, she had real good car control, really steady, stayed out of trouble and finished higher than she started.
 
StandOnIt said:
Yeah in ARCA at Rockingham...on flo and the Nascar channel I believe. Cleetus also. Posted in the ARCA thread. I would think more good numbers for the broadcast. Dystany Spurlock is the 1st black female driver in Nascar. She comes from a motorcycle drag racing background. They had her for one race in the Carl Long car, but she did so well she's running Rockingham. First time in the car and at that track she ran 7th at Hickory. I watched as much as the cameras allowed, she had real good car control, really steady, stayed out of trouble and finished higher than she started.
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Thanks, I remember now. I don’t recognize her by name yet.

Incidentally, earlier this week you posted a McFarland piece on adapting to O'Reilly cars. I think it was about an hour long. I'd like to listen to it on the way tomorrow but I can't find it. Do you remember where you posted it?

One day I'm going to figure out how to use YouTube effectively.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Thanks, I remember now. I don’t recognize her by name yet.

Incidentally, earlier this week you posted a McFarland piece on adapting to O'Reilly cars. I think it was about an hour long. I'd like to listen to it on the way tomorrow but I can't find it. Do you remember where you posted it?

One day I'm going to figure out how to use YouTube effectively.
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I wouldn't miss it, I learned a lot about how they set up cars these days, and to watch the improvement they can do for a driver. I posted in the 2024 Next Gen thread, but this will flip over to Youtube below.

 
Cleetus brings in a ton of young people that are already interested in "racing" and cars, as that is his YouTube content. Cleetus is nudging these children towards the world of NASCAR. That is gold for the long-term of the sport. There is measurable increases in engagement for the couple races Cleetus has already been in.

As a few other people have said, MJ doesn't mean much of anything to anyone under the age of 40. He's bringing in a ton of money to his team but not NASCAR as a whole, and he's not getting more eyeballs on TV or asses in seats.
 
Speedbowl14 said:
Cleetus brings in a ton of young people that are already interested in "racing" and cars, as that is his YouTube content. Cleetus is nudging these children towards the world of NASCAR. That is gold for the long-term of the sport. There is measurable increases in engagement for the couple races Cleetus has already been in.
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But how many will become fans of NASCAR racing itself, fanatical enough to watch races when he isn't entered? That's the number I'm interested in, although I doubt there's an accurate way to measure it.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
But how many will become fans of NASCAR racing itself, fanatical enough to watch races when he isn't entered? That's the number I'm interested in, although I doubt there's an accurate way to measure it.
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Well, it pretty plain to see if you watch the clip above the best of Cleetus McFarland 2025. Just watch 5 minutes of that clip and most could figure it out. It's a highlight of what he posts. Saying his followers aren't car people would be a hell of a stretch compared to MJ's fan base.
 
Wow I have so many thoughts on this that most if not all of y'all don't care about but IDGAF
  1. I'm 62 years old and I was a much bigger basketball fan most of my life but no longer
  2. I played a lot of basketball from age 18-40 and I'm still friends with a lot of those guys...and 90% never did and never will care about NASCAR
  3. IMO Jordan will always be the GOAT (my friends and age demo typically agree) as a basketball player and one of the worst ever as a team owner
  4. I appreciate him challenging the system and being heavily invested in a team I just wish it wasn't with Hamlin/Toyota
  5. That said I don't think his presence grows NASCAR significantly...yeah more time on ESPN for legal/court coverage and when 23X11 (I mean Reddick because Bubba doesn't have the mindset to take advantage of his top shelf equipment/team most of the time but that's a different subject) wins
  6. Cleetus made a rookie mistake at Daytona (people act like he was the first one ever to do so LOL) but there is no doubt in my mind who has a POSSIBLY has a bigger impact on growing the sport in today's world
  7. I could go on but it is past my bedtime
 
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