Natalie Decker is eager to get back on the race track at Iowa Speedway, after getting wrecked out last weekend in Texas early on in the final stage. This will be Decker’s second trip to the Speedway, with her lone venture coming last season in the ARCA series. Despite the main focus of the weekend being the race, it has been a bit of a rough week emotionally for Natalie and her family.
Decker and her family come into this weekend with heavy hearts after the passing of Natalie’s grandmother, Audrey Decker, an avid racer herself, on the snowmobile track. Audrey Decker’s career spanned 13 years, and she was the first woman inducted into the Snowmobile Racing Hall Of Fame in 1989 at the age of 56. In 2001, she and husband Dick Decker were inducted in the other hall – the grassroots-oriented International Snowmobile Hall Of Fame. In 2018, she was inducted once more in the racing-oriented hall – now renamed simply Snowmobile Hall of Fame in St. Germain, Wisconsin – as a part of the Team Decker Racing induction that included the whole family.
“My grandmother just passed away a few days ago, so I am going to have her name on the top of the side instead of my name.” said Decker, “My grandpa is coming out to the race. He hasn’t been out to a race in a couple of years since my grandma got sick. My Uncle is bringing him, my whole family will be there! Derek (Lemke) will be there, his mom and stepdad will be there! So it’s just a really good weekend, so many people are going to be there from my family.”
The coming together of the family should provide some healing and they all look to be in for a good show as well, with Iowa being a track that the drivers can run any line on. From the top, middle to bottom, the field of truck’s will be working all angles to make their way to the front of the pack in round two of “The Trip”, with the winner taking home an extra $50,000 cash.
In last years ARCA race at Iowa, Decker finished 18th, however, an incident left with an early exit. This time she is looking for more.
“I’m really excited to be going there with my new team this year! It will be my first time going there with DGR-Crosley, and I hope to learn a lot more about this track this weekend since I didn’t have very much seat time last year.” says Decker, “I just hope I can learn more and have fun!”
In addition to being able to run so many lines, Decker says even though it’s a 7/8th-mile track it runs a lot like a mile and a half. Looking back to the beginning of the year, her best finish came on a mile and a half, back at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
She will have an action-packed day on Saturday with all track activity being lumped together starting with a 9:30 am first practice, followed by a second practice session at 11:30 am. Her schedule will stay busy throughout the day with media availabilities and an autograph session, then at 5:35 pm a qualifying session ahead of the scheduled green flag drop just after 8:30 pm. With a busy day like that, one might think a driver would prefer it broke up into two days, however, that is not the case for Decker.
“As a rookie and a new driver coming up at a track that I’m not familiar with, it’s really nice to have it all in one day.” explained Decker, “ Main reason being that you’re not out of the truck for the night and have to overthink about it or forget things. Just definitely overthinking about it can be a big problem for a two-day show.”
It should be a memorable weekend for Natalie and her family as she pays tribute to her grandmother and aims for her first top 10 finish of the season. You can catch Decker in the No. 54 N29 Technologies Toyota Tundra for DGR-Crosley on Saturday night in the M&M’s 200 presented by Casey’s General Store at Iowa Speedway on FS1.
Written by Adrian Beecher
Image Courtesy of Natalie Decker Racing
