This NASCAR mom can make history at Daytona’s Xfinity race

The list of women who have competed in the highest levels of NASCAR is growing, but it still isn’t a very long one. And the number of those who have driven in one of the three national touring circuits after giving birth is even smaller.

Shawna Robinson, one of just 17 women to start a NASCAR Cup Series race, gave birth to two children in the late 1990s and then went on to compete in a combined 21 races across the three tiers between 2001 and 2005 — collecting a pair of top 20 finishes. The other women who have started a NASCAR national touring series race after becoming mothers include Sara Christian, Jessica Friesen, Tina Gordon, Ethel Mobley, Alli Owens and Kelly Sutton.

Next weekend, Natalie Decker will try to follow in their footsteps when she returns to the track just six months after giving birth to her son Ian.

With a sponsorship from Wawa, Decker, 28, will drive the No. 92 DGM Racing Chevrolet in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, Aug. 22. She will have to qualify for the evening race, the Wawa 250, earlier that day.

Decker made the announcement on Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning, though the chyron and host of the show erroneously stated she would be the first mom to compete in a NASCAR race.

This will be Decker’s first time back in NASCAR since May 25, 2024, when she placed 29th in the Xfinity race in Charlotte.

Decker does, however, have a history of racing at her very best at Daytona. The iconic speedway is where Decker has notched career-best finishes in three different series. She placed sixth there in a 2019 ARCA race, fifth in a 2020 Truck Series race, and 18th in the 2024 season-opener for Xfinity.

In that Xfinity race last year, Decker led seven laps. Her Truck finish in 2020 was the best-ever by a woman at Daytona in that series. Between the Xfinity and Truck levels, Decker has started 44 NASCAR races. She was the 2013 ARCA Midwest Tour Rookie of the Year and made her NASCAR debut in the Truck Series in 2019.

Decker belongs to a racing family. Her cousins Claire and Paige have competed in NASCAR, her father once owned a track that hosted a snowmobile derby in Wisconsin, and her husband — Derek Lemke — has competed in the Truck Series.

Among the other women competing at the highest levels of NASCAR this season are Katherine Legge, who has appeared in a handful of Cup and Xfinity races, and full-time Truck driver Toni Breidinger.