Cleetus McFarland, whose real name is Garrett Mitchell (not to be confused with the World Series champion), is in his first season competing in any NASCAR national series, and he has spent time in both the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series with Richard Childress Racing and in the Craftsman Truck Series with Niece Motorsports.
He competed in the Truck Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway and crashed out, before running the O'Reilly Series races at Rockingham Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway and finishing in 32nd and 35th, respectively. He returned to the Truck Series at Michigan International Speedway and earned a top finish of 25th.
Mitchell has also spent time competing in the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East, just as he did a year ago, but he hadn't run a race since the June Truck Series race at Michigan before he returned this past weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.
His Truck Series appearance at Talladega, where he ran second in the ARCA race back in April, unfortunately ended in similar fashion to his appearance at Daytona, as he was knocked out in an early wreck.
Cleetus McFarland replacement confirmed for Martinsville
The No. 4 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet is not a full-time Truck Series entry, but it has been been entered in 16 of 23 races so far, and that number is set to become 17 this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
Replacing McFarland in the No. 4 truck is set to be Conner Jones, who has run five Truck Series races, all in the team's No. 42 truck, this season. Jones also crashed out at Talladega.
Jones has competed part-time in the Truck Series since 2023, doing so for ThorSport Racing in 2023 and 2024 before joining Niece Motorsports a year ago. He ran 18th at Martinsville in 2023 and 22nd there in 2025. His career-high finish is an 11th place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2024. His best finish of 2026, a 14th place effort, also came at Charlotte back in May.
The team do not currently plan to run the No. 4 Chevrolet in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway next weekend, so Jones' start in the truck could very well mark the truck's final appearance of 2026.
Niece Motorsports run three full-time entries: the No. 42 Chevrolet, the No. 44 Chevrolet, and the No. 45 Chevrolet. The No. 42 truck, which is set to be driven by Tyler Reif for the ninth time this year, has been shared by six drivers, and it still needs a driver for next weekend. The No. 44 truck is driven full-time by Andres Perez de Lara, while the No. 45 Chevrolet has been driven full-time by Landen Lewis since the season's midway point.
Fox Sports 1 is set to provide live coverage of the Black's Tire 200 from Martinsville Speedway beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET this Friday, October 30. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from the "Paperclip" in the second-to-last race of the 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season!
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