That’s probably not a story I would be telling on a podcast…
NASCAR driver Natalie Decker was recently on the Speedway Sessions podcast with fellow driver Matt Tifft, and one clip is gaining a lot of attention after the 28-year old driver revealed how she met her 32-year old husband – when she was only 14.
Decker married fellow racer Derek Lemke in December 2023, and the couple welcomed their first child together in February 2025. But apparently her husband had his eye on her for quite a while before then…
According to Decker, she first met Lemke at a racetrack when she was only 14 years old, which would have made him around 18 at the time. But apparently she also had her eye on him, despite her age:
“So I was 14 years old and I went to his home track at Elko, and he was a few people in front of me in line checking in to get your pit pass. He was wearing a baby blue Bauer hat hockey brand backwards. And I look at my dad and I said, ‘Do you think that’s a hockey player and a race car driver? Cause if that’s the case, I will marry that guy.’ And my dad was like, ‘Oh, whatever, whatever, whatever.’”
Obviously they couldn’t start dating right away, but Decker says that Lemke slid into her DMs after that first meeting:
“He messaged me on Instagram and he was like, ‘Call me when you’re 18.’”
Well at that point Tifft seemed slightly caught off guard by the story, asking Decker if she was groomed by her future husband:
“Whoa. Is that grooming? I feel like that’s grooming.”
Whatever it was, it must have worked – because the two did eventually reconnect after Decker turned 18. And she didn’t exactly play it cool…
“He texted me and he’s like, ‘How’s it going?’ And it was Valentine’s Day. So dad, if you’re watching this, I’m so sorry, but my mom already knows about it so I’ll say it.
I sent him a very cute picture of my cute little butt. And I said, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day, Derek. What’s my present?’ We never stopped talking since that day.”
Yeah, not to judge anyone else’s relationship but that seems a little weird to me… but hey, it worked out for them so whatever I guess.
Tifft posted the clip to social media, and NASCAR fans were predictably horrified by the story:
“Not sure what’s crazier, the fact that she said this out loud or the fact that this clip was used to promote the podcast”
“Wild thing to share”
“Wow. That is something you would have to torture out of me.”
“Um this is actually pretty disturbing”
The reaction was so bad that Tifft eventually deleted the clip on X, although the podcast and story is still out there.
Decker has made a handful of starts in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, including most recently at Daytona yesterday. During the race, Decker was caught up in a big wreck, with fans criticizing her for failing to slow down before hitting another car – and then blaming her fellow driver for the accident:
Natalie has caused more than her fair share of crashes over the years. And who can forget this hilarious moment from Bristol a couple of years ago when she got wrecked by a tow truck pushing her back to the garage? Even her spotter was sick of her and just walked out in the middle of the race.
But despite her lack of results on the track, Decker somehow keeps getting rides in NASCAR…not sure how.
