Natalie Decker is at Chicagoland Speedway prepping her No. 54 N29 Technologies Toyota Tundra for the Camping World 225 with her DGR-Crosley team.
It’s been a busy week for the now 22-year-old driver, who celebrated her birthday this last Tuesday. On the same day, she opened up her new apparel store, Natalie Decker Apparel in her hometown of Eagle River, Wisconson. This was a dream of Decker’s since she was young, as she described in an interview with NBC affiliate WJFW, which can be seen here.
In line with the launch of her new store, she held a raffle to raise funds for the local Northwoods Children’s Museum, a place that Decker spent a lot of time at as a kid and still visits.
Now with a busy week in her hometown wrapped up, she is back at the track and eager to put the pedal to the metal after getting taken out of last weekend’s race at Gateway Raceway early after the start of the final stage.
“A lap or two after the green flag of the final stage, we were going into turn one, and I just got taken out.” explained Decker, “It really sucked, because, we had just got the truck exactly how I wanted it to be, and the guys were working so hard.”
Despite the frustration, Decker has remained positive and she’s been coached from her crew chief Frank Kerr, to leave the emotion at the track and move on to the next one.
“My crew chief, Frank, always tells me you have to forget about it right away after you leave the track. Think about the next race and what you can do there to make yourself better.”
Looking into that next race, Decker will take part in three practice sessions on Thursday afternoon at Chicagoland Speedway. The first session starting at 2:35 pm ET, and the other two happening two-hours after one another., at 4:35 and 6:35.
“I’m excited to go to Chicago, its a mile-and-a-half and I haven’t been on a lot of those tracks. So, to get more experience on a mile-and-a-half, they’re always fun to race at.” says Decker
It will be just the second time Decker has been to the track, with the lone trip coming last season when she was in the ARCA Series. In that race, she started 11th and finished 12th in the field of 27.
Friday will be race day for the gander Outdoors Truck Series, with qualifying to start at 5:05 pm ET, and then the green flag for the Camping World 225 is scheduled to drop just after 9:00 pm ET. Natalie Decker will take to the mile and a half, looking for her best finish of the season, which currently is 13th, coming back at the mile-and-a-half, Las Vegas Speedway in race three of the season.
Written by Adrian Beecher
