NASCAR: Natalie Decker cleared to return to racing
By Asher Fair
Natalie Decker has been cleared to return to racing, and she is next set to compete in the NASCAR Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Natalie Decker, who was slated to compete in the NASCAR Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday, September 25 but was withdrawn from the event before it began for medical reasons and scored in 36th place (last), has been medically cleared to return to racing.
Decker will not compete in this Friday night’s race at Kansas Speedway, but she was not set to drive the #44 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet in this event anyway.
She is slated to return to competition on Sunday, October 25 at Texas Motor Speedway, and she is now set to conclude her 2020 season on Friday, October 30 at Martinsville Speedway, a race which was not initially on her schedule.
She confirmed this news on Twitter.
Smiling because IM CLEARED TO RACE! I’ll be back in the truck with @NieceMotorsport at Texas and Martinsville. I will also be doing some more road racing with Ave Motorsports out west in the GT4!! 💕💕😍😍 pic.twitter.com/4t8fzib5Tn
— Natalie Decker (@NatalieRacing) October 10, 2020
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In addition to the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Decker also missed the race at Talladega Superspeedway the following Saturday, October 3 and was replaced by Kaz Grala, who finished in a respectable ninth place. She has not competed in a race since Thursday, September 17, when she finished in 29th at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The race at Talladega Superspeedway was a race which Decker had been looking forward to as a result of her success in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, the other superspeedway race on the schedule.
She finished that race in a career-high fifth place, the best finish ever for a female driver at NASCAR’s third highest level of competition. Her previous career-best result was her 13th place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March of 2019.
Decker has competed in 11 races of the 19 races that have been contested so far this season and has recorded an average finish of 25.8 with two DNFs and two lead-lap finishes.
Aside from her fifth place finish to open up the season, her best finish is her 20th place finish at the Daytona International Speedway road course in mid-August, which is also her only other lead-lap finish of the season.
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Tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 12:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, October 25 for the live broadcast of the SpeedCash.com 400 from Texas Motor Speedway to watch Natalie Decker’s first on-track action in over one month.