Concord, North Carolina (October 17, 2018) – Twenty-one-year-old Natalie Decker will make her final rookie start of the year in Friday’s ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards Kansas 150 season finale at Kansas Speedway. Decker, with new sponsorship support from N29 Technologies, LLC, returns to Kansas Speedway for the first time since declaring her current full season rookie bid – and finishing 12th during her Kansas debut in last year’s final ARCA event of the season.
Now, nearly a year to the date, the popular driver prepares to strap into her Venturini Motorsports’ No.25 Toyota looking to finish off her ’18 rookie campaign with a strong performance.
“It’s hard to believe we’re already at this point in the season,” said a reflective Decker. “Having the chance to run the full ARCA season was so much fun. I definitely learned a lot. Coming from my short track background I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But overall I think we had a pretty good year and accomplished a lot.
I’m just so thankful for everyone’s support to give me this chance. Venturini Motorsports and my sponsor N29 gave me everything I needed to make it all happen. I’m really thankful. We’ve got the final race this week at Kansas – I want to finish strong.”
Currently seventh in ARCA’s driver point standings, Decker finds herself 75-points behind driver Gus Dean for the sixth spot. With one race remaining in her first full season of ARCA competition Decker has already posted two top-5, eight top-10 and 15 top-15 finishing spots.
The Wisconsin native started her rookie season winning the General Tire Pole Award and finishing a career best fifth in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. With her performance, Decker added her name to the record books becoming just the third woman in ARCA’s 65-years and fourth in Daytona’s legendary track history to start a race from the pole position. Decker joined Patty Moise and Erin Crocker as ARCA’s only female General Tire pole winners at Daytona.
Kansas 150 – Broadcast and Race Schedule
There is one final race in the 2018 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards season, the Kansas ARCA 150 at Kansas Speedway, scheduled for Friday, October 19. Practice is scheduled at 11:30 am ET/10:30 am CT, General Tire Pole Qualifying is set for 6:05 pm ET/5:05 pm CT, and the green flag slated to wave on the season finale at 8:30 pm ET/7:30 pm CT. The race will be televised live on either FS1 or FS2, depending on Major League Baseball playoffs; ARCARacing.com will have live timing & scoring, track updates, and scanner audio during all on-track sessions for registered users.
ABOUT VENTURINI MOTORSPORTS:
Over the last 35-years Venturini Motorsports (VMS) has evolved into one of the most recognizable names in professional motorsports. Known for long-time dominance in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, Venturini Motorsports is held in high regard as one of the premier NASCAR driver development programs in the county. Since 2007, VMS has specialized in the career development of some of today’s top racing talent including current NASCAR “Stars” – Joey Logano, Erik Jones, William Byron, Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney, Darryl ‘Bubba’ Wallace Jr., Daniel Suarez, Christopher Bell, Justin Allgaier, Noah Gragson, Ben Rhoads, Ryan Reed, Brandon Jones, Matt Tifft, Brennan Poole, Dalton Sargeant, Justin Haley and Todd Gilliland. Integrity, dedication and continuous innovation paired with years of on-track success has helped define Venturini Motorsports as one of the longest tenured teams in all of modern day racing. In 2012, the Venturini racing family was recognized for their collective achievements and inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame – now finding themselves enshrined with such sports icons as Joe DiMaggio, Mario Andretti, Chip Ganassi, Andy Granatelli, Vince Lombardi, Tommy Lasorda and Rocky Marciano.