While plenty of calls from NASCAR over the race weekend have raised eyebrows, from yellow flags to their talk around fuel-mileage racing, the lightning rod has been the driver approval process and the green light given to names like Cleetus McFarland and Natalie Decker.
Decker, who has barely gotten seat time over the past two seasons due to pregnancy, came back into action at Daytona in the Tier-2 series after running one O’Reilly race last year. Her return put her under the microscope right away.
During the United Rentals 300 race at Daytona, Decker found herself in a wreck that turned everyone’s heads. Running the high lane, she tangled with Sam Mayer. To most, it looked like she had a mile of room to lift and steer clear as Mayer slid up the track, and the scene did her no favors. With only seven lead-lap finishes in 46 national series starts, she does not get the benefit of the doubt from the crowd, though some argue the replay looks harsher than the reality.
That crash poured fuel on the fire around how NASCAR stamps approvals. And instead of getting discussed for her racecraft, Decker often lands in the headlines for dustups that she ends up owning. Many fans even dub her an influencer trying to pass as a driver.
The contrast many pointed to is Mike Wallace, who was not cleared to run the Daytona 500 last year after a long layoff from big tracks. Fans ask how Decker got the nod for Tier-2 competition while Wallace was left on the sidelines.
The same debate followed McFarland. He logged a couple of ARCA superspeedway runs last year and held his own. In the recent ARCA race, he hovered near the top ten before a jack issue on pit road knocked him back, and he clawed back to finish around 11th.
But in his Truck Series debut at Daytona, McFarland was swept into a wreck after six laps, and critics pinned it on a lack of laps at that level. Some fans see him as a marketing engine for lower tiers and argue that if NASCAR waves him through with a thin résumé, then the next driver with a similar logbook should get the same treatment, regardless of their fan following.
On Reddit, commenting on Decker, one fan wrote, “I mean…yeah. She had almost a whole damn mile to avoid that wrecked car and not only did she not avoid said car, she promptly launched into a whiny tirade and did not take any sort of responsibility.”
The pushback has not come from fans alone. Insiders have also poked holes in the approval pipeline. On Monday’s episode of Door Bumper Clear, spotter Freddie Kraft took aim at both drivers. On McFarland, he said flat out that the YouTuber’s racing history does not stack up for a Truck Series grid and warned that putting him in the field puts others in harm’s way after the early crash that left him at the tail end.
On Decker, Kraft argued that a track record filled with wrecks and low finishes should have kept her off a place as unforgiving as Daytona. Still, he did not lay it all at their feet. In his view, the lion’s share of blame sits with NASCAR for handing out approvals before the drivers were ready.
Even Kelley Earnhardt Miller, co-owner and CEO of JR Motorsports, chimed in with a short social post. After Decker blamed Mayer for the contact, claiming he “rolled up the track,” Kelly Earnhardt replied with a simple “Haha,” which many read as brushing off the claim.
JRM figures, including Mike Davis, backed Mayer, noting his car had flat tires, no brakes, and heavy damage at the time, leaving him along for the ride with little control over where it drifted.
Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr. struck a softer tone on McFarland. He said what happened at Daytona could happen to anyone, himself included. But given the following McFarland brings and the eyeballs that come with it, Junior believes the sanctioning body should help him climb the ladder the right way.
On his The Dale Jr. Download, the Hall of Famer said, “Is he ready to race trucks right now? No. Will he be? Could he be? Yes. If i was NASCAR, I would be doing everything I could to get him better and what he needs is more ARCA races he needs to race short track, asphalt, I know he has a track but i mean he needs to do more than Crown Vic’s and things like that. He could run the triple crown for, for the late model stocks for NASCAR. I don’t care. He just needs to be racing more than he’s doing it. And he needs to get more experience and get better.”
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