Hampton, GA – Natalie Decker is in Atlanta for week two of the NASCAR Gander Outdoor Truck Series as she looks to tame the mile and a half in the Ultimate Tailgating 200.
“Mile and a half’s always been hard, it’s very new for me to race at mile and a half’s. I come from short track racings. So I’m learning a lot.” says Decker.
Friday the rookie took her first laps on the track during the two practice sessions allowed to the truck and you could see her struggles early. Running 26th fastest out of 33 cars running a 33.043-second lap on her 13th out of 20 laps on the track.
In round two of practice she was a bit faster, but then again so was the rest of the field. She ran a 32.877, which was 0.166-seconds faster than the first round, but dropped her to 27th fastest on the track. This came on her 8th of 15 ran practice laps.
“This is definitely the hardest race track I think I’ve ever been to.” said Decker.
Despite the known difficulty, Decker is utilizing this as a learning experience to help prepare her for the upcoming tracks in the truck series circuit.
“So I’m learning a lot. I’m really glad we got to come here at Atlanta before Vegas and to learn here and to learn as much as I can on the mile and a half, with the trucks and how they feel around other trucks, because its a lot different than an ARCA car. I think qualifying is going to go really good and then the race is going to go even better.”
She doesn’t have to worry about qualifying though, as wet weather caused for this qualifying session to be canceled. This caused the field to be set by owner points, which lands Decker’s 16th overall, putting her in the middle of the pack on the 8th row next to Tyler Dipple.
The green flag is scheduled to drop for the Ultimate Tailgating 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway at 4:40 pm EST.
