Natalie Decker had a weekend to forget at Dover. Loaded with penalties, black flags, and emotional breakdowns, this was perhaps one of the most challenging races she had in the Truck Series. While one half of the fanbase is attempting to sympathize with her, 2027 NASCAR Hall of Famer Kevin Harvick has some strong comments for her, as he challenged her NASCAR runs.

Kevin Harvick feels no sympathy for Decker

“I think when you’re terrified, you do not need to be on the racetrack,” Harvick said, speaking on the SPEED show with Will Buxton. The weekend had already been going tough for Decker at Dover. She qualified 33rd and struggled to maintain pace. She was penalized with a pass-through for a starting violation and was even black-flagged at one point for failing to maintain minimum top speed.

All of this turned into an emotional breakdown on her team radio, as she pulled in to retire from the race. Her comments towards the series and the director, however, were rather strong: “You guys, I’m trying my best to hold my sh*t together, but I don’t want to keep doing this,” she said. “There’s just so many s*itty things that I could say right now,” Decker said, “and I’m just trying to keep it together, about the f**king director of the series.”

Following her breakdown, the NASCAR fandom was divided into two parts: some who held sympathy for her as they claimed she was under too much pressure, and others who simply felt she wasn’t qualified well enough to race in the series. Kevin Harvick did not cover up his comments.

“I think that racing is something that either you’re good at or you’re not. And I don’t like to see a mockery made out of what our sport is,” he said. “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.”

Because of the tone of her voice on the team radio, Will Buxton suggested that she sounded terrified because of all that she was going through at the time. Harvick agreed, further claiming that she might not be prepared to race at such a higher level.

“I think that she’s A, sounded terrified, and I think, unprepared to be at the level of racing that you need to be at,” Harvick claimed. “There are no shortcuts in this, male or female. You have to go through the process to do it right. But we have so many good [female drivers] that are coming up through the ranks, putting in the time, trying to make sure that they are prepared when they get to the level that they need to be.”

It is indeed tough to claim if Natalie Decker is prepared to take on the massive challenge of the Truck and the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series yet. Although she has been involved in motorsports for a long time, she doesn’t have enough experience in either of these series. Decker was decent in the ARCA Series, running full-time for Venturini Motorsports in the 2018 season. While she was competitive, she didn’t win a race that season.

The biggest issue with her racing portfolio is the lack of consistency on higher levels, which makes it harder to adapt. Moreover, this isn’t the first time this season that she has been targeted by the fans and analysts. After her incident with Sam Mayer at Daytona during the NOAPS race, she was under the radar once again. In fact, Karsyn Elledge famously said that it was “embarrassing” for other females in motorsports.

“Between the taking three business days to run into Sam Mayer and the multitude of things I saw on social last week, obviously, while I did not go much further, I witnessed a lot of women around me who have. It’s honestly embarrassing. It’s embarrassing for the women who have worked hard to have a place in this sport, to be taken seriously, to be seen as an equal competitor, and there’s a lot of us that have made a career,” she said on the Door, Bumper, Clear podcast.

Mayer had crashed out during the race and was rolling back onto the track (his brakes were said not to be working at the time). While there was a caution on the track, Decker came at a relatively higher speed onto the outside and further crashed into Mayer. While that seemed to be a classic case of miscommunication between her and her spotter (because of Mayer’s inconsistent position after the crash), her Truck Series breakdown was another story.

Natalie Decker’s emotional acceptance after the Dover mishap

Even though her weekend seemed to be a complete mishap, going wrong in multiple ways with all the penalties, Natalie Decker seems far from giving up. Sharing a post on her social media, she revealed the stress she went through, serving multiple penalties at the same time, and then pulling out of the race.

“I am not going to lie I am really disappointed in myself because after all those penalties mentally I never recovered. I know there is going to be a lot of hate around my last [two] weekends racing and nothing you can say is worse [than] how hard I am on myself right now,” she wrote on Instagram.

However, she also hopes to come back stronger: “But I am going to push myself to get through this and control what I can control moving forward and show up to my next race with a smile on my face and fire in me to keep doing what I love.”

While the fandom seems to be divided, it is important to understand that Natalie Decker is not a bad driver. She showcased promising results in the junior series; however, as it seems right now, she lacks the overall experience to battle at the national level NASCAR races. The O’Reilly Auto Parts and the Truck Series demand excessive physical and mental endurance, and with her breakdown last Friday at Dover, there are still a lot of steps left to climb for Decker.