Natalie Decker

Natalie Marie Decker Lemke, born June 25, 1997, is an American professional stock car racing driver. She competes part-time in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, driving entries for Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen and Young's Motorsports. Coming from a family deeply involved in snowmobile racing, her father Chuck Decker previously owned the Eagle River Derby Track and won the 1987 World Championship Derby. She is also the cousin of fellow NASCAR competitors Claire and Paige Decker.

Decker began her motorsport career in karting, securing four championships over two years. At age twelve, she moved into four-cylinder modified stock cars before transitioning to the Super Stock division in 2011, where she claimed a class championship at Marshfield Motor Speedway in 2012. After competing in the ARCA Midwest Tour and the Midwest Truck Series, she achieved nine feature victories across limited and super late model classes in 2014. Her performances earned her a place in the 2015 NASCAR Drive for Diversity program with Rev Racing and participation in the 2016 Alan Kulwicki Driver Development program.

In 2017, Decker made her ARCA debut with Venturini Motorsports before running a full-time schedule in 2018. That season, she earned the pole position and a fifth-place finish at Daytona International Speedway, ultimately finishing seventh in overall points despite an in-season hernia injury. Alongside stock cars, she tested sports cars and raced in the Trans-Am Series for Ave Motorsports, eventually winning a race at the Circuit of the Americas and securing the SGT ProAm Challenge Title in 2021.

Decker moved up to the NASCAR Truck Series with DGR-Crosley in 2019 before joining Niece Motorsports in 2020. At Daytona in 2020, she placed fifth, achieving the highest race finish by a female driver in the history of the Truck Series. Her season was interrupted by medical challenges, including gallbladder complications and issues with blood pressure and heart rate that forced her to miss several events.

Beginning in 2021, Decker stepped into the NASCAR Xfinity Series, competing across multiple seasons for teams such as RSS Racing, Reaume Brothers Racing, Emerling-Gase Motorsports, and DGM Racing. Her schedule included selected starts at tracks like Martinsville and Charlotte, though several attempted events were affected by issues related to NASCAR sponsor approvals. In 2026, while driving for Team Reaume, she was parked by NASCAR during consecutive races at Watkins Glen and Dover for failing to maintain required pace.

Decker was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at two years old. In December 2023, she married fellow NASCAR driver Derek Lemke. The couple welcomed their first child, a son named Levi, in February 2025. Following recovery from childbirth complications, Decker returned to competition in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Daytona approximately six months later.