Friday at Watkins Glen was supposed to be all about opportunity. Instead, it turned into yet another raging debate about how NASCAR really decides who actually gets to race. Because two women showed up and put in better laps and still had to load up their trucks and head home. Dystany Spurlock was chasing history, and Toni Breidinger was also quicker than many others in the field. Yet when qualifying ended, none of them had a spot. Instead, Natalie Decker did, and for a reason that’s really pinching fans.

You see, Decker didn’t get in on speed. There was actually a 2.1-second gap between Spurlock and Decker which in a sport like NASCAR is an eternity. She actually got through owner points. It is a system where a team earns points over time, and those points can guarantee a starting spot even when your qualifying lap is one of the slowest of the day. There is no speed floor. No minimum standard you have to hit. So while Spurlock and Breidinger watched from the outside after putting together stronger laps, Decker rolled onto the grid at Watkins Glen. And what happened next made things even worse.

Decker got the black flag during Friday’s race for not meeting NASCAR’s minimum speed requirement. To put it simply, that’s NASCAR saying the vehicle is moving too slowly to safely stay on track. And teams usually get one chance to fix the issue. Come to the pit road, fix something, and get back up to speed. Deckers’ team did get the chance, but it didn’t work.

She finished 36th, a DNF. This was a rare flag situation, especially on a road course where drivers can make the minimum speed. Either something was wrong with Decker’s No. 22 truck, or she just couldn’t make up speed. And this isn’t the first time Decker’s on-track incident has become a major talking point.

Back at Daytona during Speedweeks, Decker hit Sam Mayer’s truck 16 seconds after the caution flag had already come out. Meaning everyone else had already slowed down. She hadn’t. The radio call that followed had her blaming Mayer. “Are you f—— kidding me? That hurt so bad. What the f—? Why the f— did he come up the track? Who the f— was that? That p—– me off so much.” That clip went around quickly, and not in a good way. And in this case, she should’ve been reducing her speed as NASCAR had put out a yellow flag.

To Decker’s credit, her story has included genuine milestones. Her August 2025 return made her the first woman to race post-birth, which is a notable milestone. Her 2026 schedule is spread thin: some O’Reilly Series races for Joey Gase Motorsports and a two-race Truck deal with Team Reaume. Her average finish across those starts sits at 33.00. And that’s what made Friday feel so uncomfortable to some fans. Not because Decker raced but simply because others earned the spot more on pure pace. As far as Spurlock goes, she is simply going to take the day as an educational one.

“We didn’t achieve the result we were hoping for, but that’s part of racing,” Spurlock said. “The journey continues, and I’ll keep learning, growing, and putting in the work, both on and off the track, that’s required to compete at the highest level and succeed in this sport.”

Now, while NASCAR has an owner point system, F1 in comparison has a rule called the 107% rule, which means if you qualify more than 7% slower than the fastest car, you do not start. On Friday, that gap between these two motorsports was clear as night and day. And fans saw the discrepancy, and they took to social media to express their frustration with the female driver.

“Park her forever” — and who fans are actually rooting for

People online did not hold back. “The owners’ points rule has to have something like the 107% rule to keep it in check,” one fan wrote. “The fact that she even made the race is egregious.”

Another wasn’t interested in being subtle: “Honest question — how the heck does she even still have a NASCAR license? She’s proven time and time and time again she doesn’t belong.”

Someone else went straight at the money side of it: “Why does she continue to get seat time? I realize she’s a pay driver, but damn, she shouldn’t even be out there.”

The one that hit hardest was this: “Park her forever, man. She has been given enough chances, and she hasn’t proved herself. If she just cruised around and came last, fine. But she keeps getting into race-altering situations. Waiting for the day when Isabella, Dystany, or Jade Avedisian gets their deserving chance.”

And then there was the comment that really framed the whole weekend: “Wow… Most of the NASCAR ladies are having a nightmare. First, Toni and Dystany fail to qualify, and now this happened to Decker. At least Isabella Robusto is still bossing it in ARCA.”

That last line is worth pausing on. While all of this was happening at Watkins Glen, Robusto has been putting together a genuinely strong ARCA run, exactly the kind of ground-up, earn-your-way progression that fans keep asking for.

Spurlock ran a quicker lap than Decker and still didn’t get to run the NASCAR race. Her truck was a brand-new team with zero owner points to lean on. She drove to Watkins Glen to do something no Black woman had ever done in this sport. She drove home without a start.

Breidinger was faster, too. Full 2025 Truck Series season, four top-fives across four years in ARCA, 33rd quickest lap on Friday. Same story, no owner points, no race.

Then there’s Jade Avedisian. She’s 19, still climbing, and she’s been winning everywhere she goes. First woman to win a CARS Pro Late Model race. Made the Chili Bowl A-Main, which is one of the toughest dirt fields in the country.

In February, she beat veterans and full-time NASCAR drivers to take a Super Late Model win at New Smyrna. Mark Martin, not exactly someone who hands out compliments, praised her publicly after that NASCAR race. FOX Sports put her on their top 20 Cup prospects list.

Karsyn Elledge, Dale Earnhardt’s granddaughter, said what a lot of people were already thinking when she went on the Door Bumper Clear podcast. Decker’s 2026 results, she said, were “honestly embarrassing” for every woman in NASCAR who is out there trying to be taken seriously on merit.