After Friday night’s 2.4 Hours of LeMullets, a full-contact endurance race in battered Ford Crown Victorias at Cleetus McFarland’s Freedom Factory in Bradenton, Florida, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. responded warmly to Kenny Wallace’s pitch for a full NASCAR Crown Vic series — but Wallace later explained why automakers would resist the idea, even if it is endorsed by Earnhardt Jr. and other racing greats.
The debate began after Friday night’s wild event in Florida. The next day, Wallace posted video of the race.
“NASCAR will slap their logo on this type of Racing!! This is the new NASCAR CUP SERIES,” he wrote in a post on social media.
Earnhardt replied soon after.
“When I watch this, I do see some flashbacks and qualities of mid-1980s Cup racing,” he wrote in his reply. “It’s the kind of action that sent us off the launch pad into the stratosphere back then. Stock cars being delightfully stubborn. Drivers who are hell bent to will them to victory. If you look beyond the show, you might see what made racing ‘taxi cabs’ such a big deal decades ago.”
“When I watch this, I do see some flashbacks and qualities of mid-1980s Cup racing.”
— Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Wallace Explains Why Automakers Would Balk
Wallace scaled back the idea in a follow-up video, arguing that NASCAR’s manufacturer partners would not support a series built on discontinued cars.
Automakers want to promote vehicles that shoppers can buy.
“What wins on Sundays sells on Mondays,” Wallace said. They would not back a 1990 Crown Vic, he explained, because “they can’t sell those, because they don’t make them anymore.”
He cited the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series as an example, saying manufacturers have left it partly because its cars still use carburetors, which disappeared from passenger vehicles in the 1970s. Wallace also joked about the pile-on that followed Earnhardt’s reply, likening it to a mob boss approving a remark at the dinner table.
Still, Wallace did not close the door. He asked whether NASCAR should create a Crown Vic series on asphalt, suggested the sanctioning body “work with Cleetus,” and acknowledged that fans would warn NASCAR to stay away. “They’ll ruin it,” he said of that reaction.
The Crown Vic is the Ford Crown Victoria, a full-size, rear-wheel-drive sedan built on Ford’s Panther platform, shared with the Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car. Ford introduced a dedicated Police Interceptor version with a 4.6-liter V8 in 1992, and the car served American police departments until the final Crown Victoria rolled off the line in September 2011.
Hocevar, McFarland Win Second Straight LeMullets
The Black Rifle 2.4 Hours of LeMullets ran Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, according to Motorsport.com, and has been held every year since 2020. The full-contact race unfolded on the Freedom Factory’s 3/8-mile oval, which included a chicane on the backstretch. That’s where much of the “full contact” aspect of the race came in. Teams of two shared nitrous-equipped Crown Vics, with a driver change midway through.
The field mixed NASCAR Cup drivers Denny Hamlin, Ryan Preece, Ty Dillon and Carson Hocevar with content creators, influencers and celebrities, including Vanilla Ice and T-Pain.
Hocevar and McFarland won for the second straight year. McFarland started the race and handed the car to Hocevar, who sealed the victory when he pushed Dillon aside at the white flag. Dillon, sharing the car with his father, Mike, countered into Turn 1 but ran wide at the chicane and nearly hit a tractor tire. Hocevar slid sideways, brushed Dillon again and grabbed the lead for good.
Dillon finished 0.994 seconds behind the winners. Landon Huffman and Shaun “What No Way” placed fourth and fifth, and Vanilla Ice took seventh.
Hamlin, paired with Alex Presley, finished third after his car lost its radiator and a right-rear tire blew near the finish.
“I hit everything but the lottery, that’s for sure,” Hamlin said in his interview beside a rolled-over car. Preece, who crashed early and switched to a backup car, spun late and finished sixth. Bug Strmiska rolled over, then climbed atop the upside-down car to celebrate.
Hocevar kept the post-race mood light.
“I’m glad it was the front bumper,” he said, a nod to an earlier NASCAR incident. McFarland called Hocevar a “cheat code” and joked that his own job was to drive safely for 35 minutes.
McFarland’s real name is Lawrence Garrett Mitchell, and he was born April 5, 1995, in Omaha, Nebraska. He worked in social media for the automotive video company 1320Video when a spontaneous clip shot by 1320Video founder Kyle Loftis at Rocky Mountain Race Week in 2015 introduced an over-the-top character named Cleetus McFarland.
In January 2020, Mitchell bought DeSoto Speedway at auction for $500,000 and renamed the Bradenton oval Freedom Factory. The track’s signature events include the Freedom 500, a pay-per-view event featuring nitrous-boosted Crown Vic police cars, first staged in 2020.
McFarland has since moved into stock cars. He made his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut in April at Rockingham Speedway, driving the No. 33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, and started 35th and finished 32nd. He has also raced in the ARCA Menards Series and Craftsman Truck Series.
NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. Drops Take on Kenny Wallace Crown Vic Series Call