Written by Adrian Beecher
Las Vegas, NV – Natalie Decker is in Vegas getting ready for race one of her busy weekend. Thursday she hit the track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the first time, as the Gander Outdoor Truck Series field took to practice.
Decker took 20 laps in the first round of practice as she made adjustments and looked to find speed on the track. Early on she was struggling with speeds in the mid 160s.
However, after some adjustments, Decker and crew were able to find speed, hitting a 171.455 mph lap average on her final lap around the track in the first practice session. However, it was only 27th fastest out of 29 cars that took laps.
“First practice it was ok, 2nd practice it was really good.” says Decker,
In round two, Decker was able to find much more speed. She ran a 30.923-second lap on her 26th of 32 ran in the final practice session. This was midway into the final run, as the team put on stickers to gauge tire fall off. That fastest time was at a 174.627 mph lap average, 3.172- mph faster than the first practice.
“We really did, it went really well.”, said Natalie of finding the speed they were looking for, “But we didn’t do a mach-run, which I was fine with, I just wanted to do long runs, so we did 15 laps there at the end.”
Natalie won’t be able to get back on the track in her No. 54 N29 Technologies Toyota Tundra until qualifying at 2:10 pm PST. Then she will take the green flag with the field at approximately 6:00 pm PST in the Stratosphere 200.
Though it’ll only be her
“Just in general how you have to drive a mile and a half is completely different from what I come from and have done my whole life.” explains Decker, “So to be able to go to Atlanta and feel what it feels like going into the corner with the air and how it moves around. Now to come here to Vegas I know what that feels like and I can be more comfortable with it.”
