In Defense of Natalie Decker

 In Defense of Natalie Decker

By Brian Cotnoir

Welcome to a new segment on the blog, where I take a look at former and Current drivers in NASCAR's Top 3 Series who I feel may be unfairly judged and don't deserve so much (or as much) flack as they typically get from typical racing fans.  So with that being said, let's talk about Natalie Decker.

Natalie Decker is a racecar driver from Wisconsin who has run part-time in the NASCAR Truck Series since 2019.   This past season she only ran 5 races for Our Motorsports and Reaume Brothers Racing, with mid-field results.  In addition she also raced part-time in Trans-Am, where she won her first race in her division at the Circuit of the America's in addition to two runner-up finishes that helped her clinch Pro/Am Division Championship.  Before making the jump to NASCAR she ran full season in the ARCA Series for the Powerhouse Venturini Motorsports.  She scored the Pole for the Daytona ARCA race and wound up finishing 5th (her best finish of the season).   In 30 career starts in the ARCA Series, Decker has twelve Top 10 Finishes and two Top 5 finishes.    In her only full-time season in ARCA she finished an impressive 7th in the Points.  While some of her teammates at Venturini like Christian Eckes, Chandler Smith, and Michael Self each won a handful of races, Decker was the only one who ran the full-season and finished ahead of all three of them in the final points standings.

Even before racing in the ARCA Series, Decker was making a name for herself in Wisconsin.  In 2014, she won a 7 races and a Track Championship at her home track, State Park Speedway in Wausau, Wisconsin.  She also won a Super Late Model Race at the Golden Sands Speedway (also in Wisconsin).

Now, it should go without saying that Natalie Decker gets a lot of disrespect from some fans on the internet.   Where does that come from?  Personally, I feel a lot of the hate and disrespect she gets has to do with jealousy.   She is 24-years-old, and honestly, looks like she could/should be a Super Model rather than a racecar driver.  She presently has over 188,000 followers on Instagram (by comparison, NASCAR Cup Series driver William Byron only has 117,000 and Alex Bowman only has 148,000 followers). That's very impressive that more people follow her on Instagram then two of the Best Drivers in NASCAR today.  I follow Decker on Instagram, and I get at least 4-5 fake Natalie Decker account follow requests a month, because creeps are trying to cash in on her beauty and popularity and trick gullible/thirsty racing fans.

Decker got her real big break in 2015 when she was announced as part of the the "Drive for Diversity Program".   Some race fans get really mad at the Driver for Diversity Program, because their bitter and bigoted and hate the idea of female or minority drivers getting an opportunity to drive for teams in racing.  The 2015 Class of the Drive For Diversity Program doesn't have any other outstanding drivers in it; the only other name I recognized was Kenzie (Ruston) Hemric, wife of 2021 Xfinity Champion Daniel Hemric.

Decker is also known as "Natalie Wrecker" in some circles of racing fans for her tendency to wreck in the Truck Series.   She also get's a lot of flack for not winning any races despite driving for decent teams like David Gilliland Racing and Niece Motorsport.  Now true, in her first season in the Truck Series with DGR she was only running at the finish about half of the time, however, I feel an important fact that is often overlooked is the fact that in 2019 she finished 19th in the final drivers standings' despite only competing in 19-of-the-23 races.  By comparison rookie Hailie Deegan, another female driver in NASCAR, but one who draws high praise for her driving ability from fans only finished 20th in the 2021 Truck Series Standings despite running all 22 events.   Deegan's teammate at DGR, Tanner Gray, only managed a 25th place finish in the final drivers standings too.   During the 2020 season, at Niece Motorsports she ran only 14-of-the-23 races, but some of those races were due to medical reasons, in which she was not cleared to race.   Her season highlight was a 5th place finish in the season opening Truck Race at Daytona (to date 11/18/21 the Highest Finishing Position for a female in the NASCAR Truck Series).

So does Natalie Decker deserve all this criticism and hate?  Absolutely not!  If you don't follow her on Instagram, I highly recommend you start.  She is entertaining and she's close friends with two other underappreciated drivers I really like, Travis Braden and Kaz Grala.   I think given the right equipment and team, Decker could easily be a Top 15 driver in the Truck Series or possibly Xfinity Series.    Remember she is just 24-years-old, and not every driver going through the NASCAR ranks can be a hotshot right off the bat like Kyle Larson, William Byron, and Erik Jones.   I think she is a more than capable racecar driver, and I think she'll only get better as time goes on, and I hope her health can improve so that she may be able to attempt a full-time season in the NASCAR Truck Series again someday.