Natalie Decker stirred a conversation in the racing garage when she parked her truck mid-race at Dover after 81 laps and left it.

Decker’s outburst, which included her saying that she didn’t want to return to the Truck series anymore, has split the audience, with some speaking in her favour for sharing her raw emotions, while others haven’t taken it too well. 

Amongst those with zero sympathy is Kevin Harvick, who let it rip on the Speed with Harvick and Buxton podcast. Harvick did not hold back as he felt what Decker did was a disservice to the countless women trying to make their mark on the male-dominated sport. 

“I’m in the zero sympathy category. I think that racing is something -either you’re good at it, or you’re not, and I don’t like to see a mockery made out of what our sport is. And we have so many great up-and-coming female drivers.”

Decker’s race panned out in a rather odd manner, where she was given a penalty because of a start infringement. While serving the penalty, she was handed another penalty for speeding on pit road. Soon after, she was shown the black flag for going too slow, which led to the outburst. 

Kevin Harvick took the examples of Danica Patrick and Katherine Legge, who trailblazed their way to the top levels of the sport. He also mentioned names like Jade Avedisian and Isabella Robusto, who are coming through the various junior series.

Harvick said, “All of the females that are trying to do it the right way by being good at their craft. Seeing the rage quit that she went through this weekend, I have zero sympathy for throwing a temper tantrum and blaming it on a series director, and all the things that she said over the radio, and all the things that have happened before this. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for this one.”

Harvick clear on shortcuts and racing underprepared

Will Buxton raised two important points during his discussion with Kevin Harvick. One point was that it seemed that she was terrified over the radio, and that there were signs that she may have been underprepared for the races. 

A fuming Harvick made his stance very clear. “I think when you’re terrified, you don’t need to be on the race track. I think both. I think she sounded terrified, and I think unprepared to be at the level of the racing that you need to be at. There are no shortcuts in this– male or female.”

Harvick was firm on his stance that getting drivers without being prepared is the kind of shortcut that one should not be taking when it comes to competitive racing, because firstly, it’s not fair, and secondly, it is dangerous. Harvick also said that the conversation is often very “touchy” on the female side of things. 

“At some point, you have to take responsibility for yourself in order to be what you need to be at the level that you’re racing. I hate what this does to the women who are trying to do this correctly, and get the experience and present themselves properly to the rest of the world, and will be able to do it just like Danica Patrick did.”

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason