28-year-old Natalie Decker has spent seven years in NASCAR after entering the Truck Series in 2019, though her competitive path began earlier when she stepped into the ARCA Menards Series in 2017. She grew up in a racing household where the sport was the family’s heartbeat, and she never strayed from the belief that she belonged behind the wheel.
Advertisement
Her father, Chuck Decker, once a professional snowmobile racer and the former owner of the track that hosts the World Championship Snowmobile Derby, stood at the center of that foundation and shaped her earliest ambitions.
The Decker family carries a legacy that runs deep in motorsports, particularly in snowmobile racing, dating back to 1967. Four Decker brothers, including Chuck and his brother Allen, raced professionally.
Natalie’s father, Chuck, captured the 1987 World Championship Derby title at the family’s home track in Eagle River, and he later owned the World Championship Snowmobile Derby Racetrack, where she spent her childhood watching riders push the limits and fell for the sport that would guide her future.
With that history surrounding her, she often recalled how naturally her path began. She once said, “My first ever race was on a snowmobile, at the track my parents owned in Eagle River, WI. The world Championship Snowmobile Derby hosts the biggest race that has been running longer than the Super Bowl. I was five years old, and I would practice on the snow-cross track every day after school.”
She described stepping into that moment on race day, facing “there were about 10,000 people in the crowd,” as she lined up with “about 15 other kids on snowmobiles waiting to take the green flag.”
When the green flag waved, she rode roughly 100 yards before stopping and removing her helmet. Her father, the track owner and the 1987 World Champion, rushed to her side, concerned something had gone wrong.
But to everyone’s surprise, she just told him, “I was done racing snowmobiles. Little did my dad know, he was going to have to switch to go-karts and then stock cars in my future!”
Her direction shifted quickly, and her dream grew clearer. She said, “I knew I wanted to race NASCAR since I was seven years old, and I would tell my dad that every time we would watch NASCAR together on Sunday’s. My dad would tell me stories of him buying Mark Martin’s stock car back when my dad raced cars, and that made me a big Mark Martin fan when I was younger.”
At seven, after a business trip with her father led them to a go-kart track, Decker decided go-karts would be her road to NASCAR. She stayed on that mission for two years until her parents finally bought her a purple oval asphalt go-kart for her ninth birthday, opening the door to her racing career.
However, her competitive streak wasn’t unique in the family. Her cousins, Paige and Claire Decker, also raced snowmobiles and later competed in the NASCAR series.
