NASCAR veteran criticizes 'broken' approval process after McFarland and Decker incidents

Veteran NASCAR spotter Freddie Kraft has called the sport's driver approval system into question after the Daytona 500 weekend.

Kraft's ire was specifically directed at an entry each in the Truck and O'Reilly Series, with Cleetus McFarland (real name Garrett Mitchell) and Natalie Decker being his negative examples.

McFarland wrecked early in his Truck Series debut at Daytona last week, losing control out of Turn 4 and ending his race after just six laps. Decker, meanwhile, had her race end early the next night when she ploughed into the side of a wrecked Sam Mayer, whose car rolled slowly up the track out of his control.

Decker was criticised at the time for her failure to slow down in response to a wreck which began some 15 seconds before she arrived on the scene, with commentators immediately pointing out that with the caution out, there was no need for her to be carrying any speed at all into an active wreck site where damaged cars were still moving erratically.

McFarland, for his part, was very fortunate that his own wreck didn't take any other drivers into the wall with him, and it was the social media sensation's approval that Kraft took aim at first.

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Kraft: Truck drivers were saved by dumb luck

On his Door Bumper Clear podcast, he said: “This is gonna be very unpopular, and I’m sorry, but what are we doing? Are we trying to get the best racecar drivers on the racetrack, or are we trying to get the biggest social media following?

“The system should not be based on participation; it needs to be based on results. This guy ran two plate races last year, wrecked in both of them, wrecked half the field in one of them trying to do a restart.”

“We’re just lucky the other night that he didn’t wipe out the Truck field… It was just dumb luck. We talk about safety. I’m sure he’s a great guy, he seems like a phenomenal person. But he’s not ready for what he’s doing. So, you can’t approve these people to go out there.”

On Decker, who races in Trucks a couple of times a year, he added: “First of all, how did she ever get approved? She’s run 13 races and averaged a 29th-place finish, piling in the wrecks on top of that. At what point do you look and say ‘Alright, we made a mistake approving this person, now we need to take it back’. ...The system is broken.”

Decker had a particularly controversial week which started even before Saturday night's race, having drawn attention by cheerfully telling the Speedway Sessions podcast about her first contact with her now-husband Derek Lemke when he was 18 and she was just 14 years old, with him messaging her on Instagram a handful of months later telling her to 'call me when you're 18'.

A couple of her fellow female drivers, namely Taylor Reimer and Jade Avedisian, took to social media to indirectly critique Decker's actions over the week on and off the track, writing obliquely about their need to act as a role model for young female drivers and 'carry [themself] with a high standard' respectively.