A NASCAR driver has opened up about meeting her husband when she was just 14 years old, and he was 18, sharing details of a controversial direct message he sent her while she was still underage.
Natalie Decker shared her story on the Speedway Sessions podcast, recounting the moment her husband, Derek Lemke, caught her attention when she was a teenager.
Decker explained that during a racing event in Minnesota, she noticed Derek while they were both in line for pit passes.
“I was 14 years old and I went to his home track at Elko, and he was a few people in front of me in line checking in to get your pit pass,” Decker remembered.
“And he was wearing a baby blue Bauer hat – hockey brand – backwards. And I look at my dad, and I said, ‘Do you think that’s a hockey player AND a race car driver? Because if that’s the case, I will marry that guy.’ And my dad was like, ‘Oh, whatever, whatever.’”
After the race, Decker encountered Lemke and his father at a bar and realized there was an age gap. She said: “I didn’t realize that Derek was like four years older than me. So I was like, ‘Well, this isn’t going to work. He’s 18. I’m 14.’”
Decker continued to have strong feelings for him throughout the racing season, culminating in a meeting at Oktoberfest.
“And like he now knows I’m like obsessed, madly in love,” she stated. “Like I think he’s the coolest guy, I think he’s so cute.
“Like I’m crushing on him hard, and I’m just like this little girl to him at this point. He has a girlfriend, he’s graduated high school. So like it’s weird, right?”
Six months later, Decker received a message from Lemke on Instagram.
She recalled: “He was like, ‘Call me when you’re 18.’ And I said, ‘Bet, I will.’ I was like OK, deal… I’m pretty sure he still had a girlfriend when he told me that.”
Podcast host Matt Tifft reacted with surprise to the story, exclaiming: “Whoa! Is that grooming? I feel like that’s grooming.”
Decker also recounted Lemke reaching out after she turned 18.
“He’s like, ‘How’s it going?’ And it was Valentine’s Day,” she mentioned.
She further elaborated: “So dad, if you’re watching this, I’m so sorry, but, my mom already knows about it. So, I’ll say it. I sent him a very cute picture of my cute little butt.
“And I said, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day, Derek, What’s my present?’ We never stopped talking since that day.”
The couple eventually married in December 2023.
Following the podcast, Tifft appears to have deleted the video from his social media page due to the reaction it garnered.