Kenny Wallace Defends NATALIE DECKER Daytona Radio Comments

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GRRL! musings…

This bulls**t has been going on long enough that this is going to be a long one.

Back in 2022 Bubba Wallace was upset with Kyle Larsen crowding him into a wall. Bubba’s response? He rammed Larsen crashing them both INTENTIONALLY. Then on Bubba’s long walk over to Larsen he had plenty of time to think about what had happened and then ATTACKED Larsen. (video here) He then pushed aside the safety personnel trying to do their job by getting Bubba to head to the medical office as is post-crash protocol.

But Natalie swore.

Fucking hell! Natalie swore! She doesn’t belong in NASCAR!

Let me give you one more comparison.

Jade Avedesian was horribly wrecked in a similar manner with significantly worse results (video here). Jade also had a long walk to confront the racer that even more egregiously wrecked her. So when she arrived at the ass that wrecked her she… gave him a fist bump. A fist bump. Why? Because she explained later, anything else would put her sponsors in bad light.

Now, tell me again why women don’t belong in racing. I forgot your reason.

February 19, 2026

GRRL! SUMMARY:

NATALIE DECKER found herself at the center of a social media storm after a crash in the United Rentals 300 at Daytona on February 14. The wreck started when Jeb Burton hit Ryan Sieg entering turn one, collecting multiple drivers. Sam Mayer’s car rolled back onto the track and hit Decker in the aftermath, which led to her unloading on team radio with a profanity-laced blast asking why “that f***ing idiot” would roll back onto the track and ruin their race. Hot team radio in the heat of the moment — standard operating procedure in racing. Except when it’s not.
NASCAR fans got hold of the audio and did what the internet does best: pile on. Former Cup driver Kenny Wallace stepped up to defend her, pointing out the obvious — she was talking to her team on a private channel, not addressing fans. “You know that she’s a human being, right?” Wallace said, adding that his mother would tell her “this too shall soon pass.” He reminded critics that Decker ran around 15th at Daytona before the wreck and encouraged her to dust it off and move on to Pocono. Meanwhile, Door Bumper Clear podcast hosts Freddie Kraft and Karsyn Elledge took the opportunity to question whether she belongs in the series at all, with Kraft citing her 13-start average finish of 29th.
Here’s where we separate the radio controversy from the results conversation. The team radio reaction? That’s racing — drivers say worse than that every weekend, and male drivers rarely face this level of scrutiny for hot mics. The performance criticism? That’s fair game. An average finish of 29th across 13 starts is rough, and her best finish came at Daytona before this wreck. Racing is results-driven, and those numbers need to improve. But let’s not pretend the backlash would have been this intense if a male driver with similar stats had cursed on team radio after getting collected. DECKER ended the day with a DNF in 33rd while Austin Hill won his fourth career Daytona race.