YouTube personality Cleetus McFarland, whose real name is Garrett Mitchell, recently took two rising NASCAR talents — Connor Zilisch and Jesse Love — to the strip at zMAX Dragway for a first‑hand taste of drag racing.
What began as a casual invitation quickly turned into a lesson in humility for the two drivers, who entered the sport with the assumption that the raw power of a drag car would be a simple extension of their NASCAR experience.
Jesse Love was the first to climb into the cockpit, only to discover that the discipline required a different technique; he later confessed that lifting the throttle at the moment of a shift had cost him valuable momentum.
Connor Zilisch, meanwhile, managed to keep the car under control even as the tires spun wildly, later describing the rush inside the machine as pure adrenaline, saying the vehicle ‘ripped’ beneath him.
Stockman’s Clean Run
The most captivating segment of the video, however, belonged to crew chief Danny Stockman, whose flawless run silenced the teasing crowd and showcased the precision required to master the quarter‑mile.
The event was staged under the banner of Richard Childress Racing, with the backing of NASCAR and O’Reilly Auto Parts, and took place on American soil, underscoring how the worlds of stock car and drag racing can intersect in unexpected ways.