NASCAR driver Natalie Decker reveals her husband first DMd her when she was 14
NASCAR driver Natalie Decker has revealed how she met her husband after receiving a DM when she was 14.
Decker first met her now-husband, Derek Lemke, when she was 14.
Professional stock car racing driver Lemke was 18 at the time, but Decker was 'obsessed' with him, with the four-year age gap making things complicated as he was a legal adult.
"I was 14-years-old and I went to his home track at Elko (Wisconsin) and he was a few people in front of me in line checking in to get your pit pass," she told Matt Tifft on the Speedway Sessions podcast.
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"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? Cause if that's the case, I will marry that guy'.
"And my dad was like, 'oh, whatever, whatever'."
Decker added: "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?"
Lemke, 32, then slid into Decker's DMs on Instagram, saying 'call me when you're 18' - which she obliged.
"He messaged me on Instagram and 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," she explained.
Stunned by her honesty, Tifft questioned whether she was groomed, asking: "Is that grooming? I feel like that's grooming."
Decker, now 28, said they had 'never talked about it' and when she turned 18, she revealed she sent Lemke a picture of her 'cute little butt' after he had messaged on her Valentine's Day of all days.
She continued: "He texted me and he's like, 'How's it going?' And it was Valentine's Day, 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've never stopped talking since that day."
In December 2022, Decker and Lemke got engaged before marrying each other a year later.
They are parents to one child; son Levi, who was born in February 2025.
Topics: Formula 1
Nasir Jabbar