Written by Adrian Beecher
Hampton, GA – Natalie Decker was able to overcome two slides coming out of turn four on Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway to complete her first full race in the Truck Series during the Ultimate Tailgating 200.
Qualifying was rained out and had Decker set in
On lap 15, Decker took a spin coming out of turn four as she got loose on the track while running in 17th overall. Her No. 54 N29 Technologies LLC Toyota Tundra went sliding to a halt on the edge of the front stretch and the infield grass just inside the paint of the GEICO Restart Zone.
Initially, Decker spun her tires trying to get out of the wet grass. Here crew chief told her to wait for the rest of the field to pass since they were already a lap down. Decker was then able to pull out and get back around to pit road where her crew cleaned her grill, refilled the machine with gas and put on four new tires and sent her back out on the track.
One of her tires had a hole burned nearly completely through it, with
Natalie would fall back to the last position and the spin put her two laps down as the field went back to green on lap 20.
She was able to climb up to 27th over the completion of the first two stages, taking advantage of the opportunity to learn the track. Then after the completion of stage two, midway into the 70-lap final stage run, Decker once again got loose out of turn four and went for a second spin.
At the end of the spin coming out of turn four, her truck came to a stop only about 5 feet past where she was on her first spill. Yet again, however, Decker was able to avoid contact for the most part as Jennifer Joe Cobb in her No. 10 machine went low, almost onto pit road, to avoid contact with Natalie.
But like the greats say, it’s not about how many times you fail, it’s about how much you can take and keep going. So Decker revved her No. 54 machine back up and went into the pits, got four tires, and got back out there.
Despite the 2nd spin, Decker went down just three total laps from her two accidents. Down the stretch she hung back most of the rest of the night, avoiding the final wreck that came just two laps after the field went back to
There would be another red flag with 10 laps to go for weather as the mist that had been around the track all day, got thinker. However, NASCAR would get the race back under green 16 minutes and 59 seconds later.
Natalie would cross the start-finish line with the checkered flag flying for the first time in her Gander Outdoor Truck Series career, with a 24th place finish.
Decker sits 29th in the overall driver standings with 18 points, 73 points behind the leader. She is just 29 points outside from a playoff spot.
She will now head to Vegas where she will race for the first time, looking to take whats shes learned here in Atlanta and put it to use.
“I’m looking forward to it because I’ll already have the experience I have here in Atlanta and everyone says this is the hardest race track. So, then to be able to take everything I learned here and go to Vegas, I’m really excited.” says Decker of heading to Vegas, “I’ve seen the track from the outside, I’ve never actually been inside. But I was over at the little bowl ring watching legend car races. So I got to see the Vegas track this past year at the Sema Show, and I was like I can’t wait until I race there someday and now look, I’m going!”
