NASCAR: Is the best yet to come for Natalie Decker?

In her first start at Niece Motorsports, Natalie Decker recorded the highest finish by a female driver in NASCAR Truck Series history. Is the best yet to come?

During the early stages of last Friday night’s 2020 NASCAR Truck Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway, Natalie Decker, making her first start for Niece Motorsports as a part-time driver, was riding around toward the back of the pack in a group separated by several seconds from the lead pack.

But even as other drivers crashed out, she remained down in 26th or 28th place throughout much of the 100-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) superspeedway oval in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Decker entered the 2020 season coming off a rather unsuccessful first season in the Truck Series with DGR-Crosley in 2019. She competed in 19 of the 23 races on the schedule, and while teammate Tyler Ankrum qualified for the playoffs with a victory, she recorded just seven top 20 finishes and a top finish of 13th place. Her average finish was a disappointing 22.2.

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The 22-year-old Eagle River, Wisconsin native’s deal with Niece Motorsports includes just eight races, and given how good her teammates are, the 2020 season could prove to be a make or break season for her.

Team Penske Cup Series driver Joey Logano, who was commentating in the booth during Friday night’s race, made the remark that the drivers who hang out in the back of the field in the 20th to 30th place race in superspeedway races do finish in the top five or top 10 fairly often, just with a far smaller chance of winning than the drivers who run up in the front, even though those drivers are at a greater risk of being involved in the “Big One”.

He couldn’t have been more accurate in this case, and that played right into Decker’s hands.

Decker, who hadn’t spent any time in the top 10 throughout the race, found herself running in eighth place on the final restart.

She worked her way up to fourth on the final lap before ultimately settling for a career-high fifth, an all-time best finish for a female driver at NASCAR’s third highest level. Her previous best finish in a superspeedway race was her 16th place finish in last year’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

So was this top five finish simply a superspeedway fluke for Decker, or is the best yet to come?

Six of her seven top 20 finishes in 2019 came at non-superspeedway tracks, so her success at Daytona may not have been a total fluke. Her best two results, 13th and 14th place, came at 1.5-mile intermediate tracks (Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway, respectively).

Hanging out at the back of the pack certainly isn’t a strategy that will work everywhere, as it is easy to get lapped at pretty much anywhere other than Daytona and Talladega. Plus, it is no secret that Decker has had more than her fair share issues staying out of trouble when she is pushing her hardest, as evidenced by her nine DNFs in a 15-race span, including eight in an 11-race span, a year ago.

However, she is certainly in good enough equipment to continue on with this success and momentum that she gained at Daytona. Niece Motorsports experienced a breakout year in 2019, and that looks like it could very well continue in 2020.

The Al Niece-owned team opened up in 2016. From 2016 to 2018, the team made 77 starts and recorded just three top 10 finishes, including top finishes of ninth place in 2018 with Justin Fontaine at the first race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and with Austin Wayne Self in the second.

Perhaps most notably, Decker beat both of her teammates in the season opener. Part-time driver Ross Chastain, who ran toward the front for much of the race, finished in eighth place behind the wheel of the #40 Chevrolet while full-time driver Ty Majeski saw his night end in a scary wreck that left his #45 Chevrolet on its roof.

Her fifth place finish in last Friday night’s race certainly isn’t enough to say for certain that she is on the right track after a disappointing 2019 season. But it is also nowhere near as insignificant as a typical top five finish for a usual backmarker in a superspeedway race.

Natalie Decker is set to make her second start of the 2020 NASCAR Truck Series season in tonight’s Strat 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. This race is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET. Can she post another impressive result?