EXCLUSIVE: Paige Decker Falls Shy of Qualifying for Kroger 250

Paige Decker entered the weekend at Martinsville Speedway hoping to qualify for the Kroger 250 to make her first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start.

“I’m excited and nervous, and there’s a lot of emotion all in one,” she commented earlier in the morning. But overall, I’m just happy to be here, and I hope we can make it into the race today.”

Unfortunately though, Decker would fall short of qualifying for the 30-truck field on Saturday morning. Part of the reason could’ve been due to the lack of track time allotted for the truck series on Friday as a result of the rain, as this weekend marked Decker’s first time behind the wheel of a truck.

“It was just a whole learning experience, something completely different than I’ve raced before, and I think that was the hardest part,” she commented. “I guess I just wish we would’ve had a little more practice time before yesterday, but we’ll make do with what we can. We made changes to the truck and it should be good for qualifying today.”

The opportunity to drive for Mike Harmon came together as a result of a phone call during Speedweeks in February while she was racing a late model at New Smyrna.

“We were down in Florida racing, and we didn’t do too much at that point, just because we were so busy trying to focus on Speedweeks,” she said. “Once we got back and things got settled down, we started to work 100% focused on it and raising money and staying focused on the process. It’s really exciting. I’m happy that Mike Harmon gave me a chance here and happy that he trusts me to drive his truck. It’s great. You need that phone call that says ‘we want you to come run our truck’.”

The Wisconsin native got her start in racing at the age of three, running snowmobiles, before moving forward to go-karts and then getting into the stock car atmosphere. Each year, she has continued to move up the racing ladder with success, and says the most memorable moment of her career is her victory in he TUNDRA Series.

“It was a TUNDRA Super Late Model win, and it was my first time winning in a super late model, and not only was I the first rookie to win that race, but also the first female to win that race,” she shared. “I won by like a half straightaway, so it helped me some gain confidence. A lot of emotions and I worked so hard all season so definitely that’s the most memorable.”

Moving forward, there’s a possible chance that she may run some more races this year.

“It costs a lot of money, though, so it’ll be a lot of hard work because they’ll be anymore races in the future,” she said. “Of course, I’m hoping there’s going to be more races in the future.”