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Big Dreams in a Small Town: The Neaves Family Seeks “High Cotton” in Freedom Hall

Published: February 4, 2025 Updated: February 4, 2025

McAdoo, Texas is the textbook example of a Texas town that non-Texans see portrayed on television; a quiet hamlet with a single four-way stop sign, home to less than 100 citizens. It’s a community of cotton farmers where the quiet is sometimes interrupted by the sounds of blown hemi engines echoing across the landscape. Those sounds are emitted from the shop of the Neaves family, with three generations invested in the sport of Truck and Tractor Pulling. 

The story of the Neaves family and the Cotton Candy Pulling Team began in 1974 when George Neaves began pulling with a single-carbureted Chevy-powered Modified tractor. Given the name “Cotton Candy” by George’s then three-year-old son Cameron, that machine set into motion a passion and dedication to the sport across six decades. George’s pulling exploits were initially with the Texas Truck and Tractor Pulling Association and moved on to pulling with the Outlaws group in the late Eighties, adding events in Oklahoma and Missouri under the Outlaws banner. 

As pulling evolved, so did the “Cotton Candy” machine. A blown Chevy would replace the carbureted version, with blown twins soon to follow. The tractor would evolve again with triples in the early 2000’s and the engine count maxed out with four Chevys harnessed to an Engler chassis in 2008. 

The team’s first competition experience at the National Farm Machinery Show Championship Tractor Pull began in 2001. George and Cameron continued to compete at the Championship Tractor Pull until 2008 when the family’s focus shifted from the tractor to the next generation of Neaves family competing in the cattle show ring. They returned in 2018 to the Championship Tractor Pull with a new ride and a third generation of the team at the wheel of the “High Cotton” T-bucket Two Wheel Drive. Seth Markey, Cameron’s son, made that initial ride and shares driving duties with his cousin, Cameron Paschall, at the Championship Tractor Pull and throughout the outdoor season with the TTTPA and Outlaws. 

High Cotton Ctp

The elder Cameron made a return to Freedom Hall in 2020 with a new Modern Machine chassis bearing the “Cotton Candy” name sporting three hemis. It was a conscious effort to step back into the fray with more power to be competitive, where the former Chevy-based powerplants were behind on power. While those changes provided more opportunity to be competitive, pulling at the Farm Show provides the unique challenge of running with a set of three hemis, a step up from the twin hemis used for summer pulling. Cameron and “Cotton Candy” have been a mainstay in Modified action since their 2020 return to Louisville – but not without a massive hurdle for the team in 2024.

The trek to Louisville in February 2024 was as normal for the team, making the 1200-mile journey with George driving most of the way. Once staged and parked, George began to feel ill, to the point he required emergency gastrointestinal surgery and a stay at Jewish Hospital in downtown Louisville for the week. Largely an inseparable pair - father and son - George and Cameron, found themselves a few miles apart, with George (in his first-ever hospital stay) working on healing up and Cameron and the remainder of the team working on putting “Cotton Candy” and “High Cotton” in the hunt for a Grand Championship. While “High Cotton” was unable to make it into the Two Wheel Drive finals, the team put “Cotton Candy” in play for the Modified title, landing in the finals and finishing second on Saturday night, their best-ever finish at the Championship Tractor Pull. Even with the limitation of being in a hospital room, George was still able to enjoy the pulling action by watching the live streams of each session. 

In speaking with the elder Cameron, you sense the reverence they have for the Championship Tractor Pull. Calling it the “Super Bowl of Tractor Pulling,” the team from McAdoo travels 25,000 miles a year to compete with Outlaws and TTTPA, looking to collect wins and points titles with both machines so that they improve their chances of obtaining an invitation to the Championship Tractor Pull. Both machines return for 2025, with George back in good health, and the elder Cameron driving “Cotton Candy” while his nephew Cameron wheels “High Cotton.” 

If you happen to be at the crossroads of Texas Farm Roads 193 and 264 in McAdoo, Texas, don’t be surprised to hear the quiet of a sleepy town being interrupted by the roar of hemis; it’s just the Cotton Candy Pulling Team readying themselves to be back in Freedom Hall, on the hunt again for a pair of Grand Championships.