The 29-year-old Australian driver, who competes frequently for Tickford Racing in Supercars, has been a longtime fan of NASCAR and can make his debut within the Truck Sequence on Friday night time at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Waters received a firsthand take a look at the .0526-mile oval over a 12 months in the past when he visited the monitor which sparked a 12-month journey to discover a aggressive NASCAR journey that additionally matched up along with his Supercars schedule.
He’ll drive a further Ford entry this weekend for ThorSport Racing, a perennial contender within the Truck Sequence.
“I’m completely pumped. So excited to be, you recognize, lastly having a race over right here in a truck,” Waters mentioned Tuesday. “You understand, I’ve at all times adopted NASCAR and carried out quite a lot of oval stuff myself on dust in Australia.
“That is fairly cool for me and one thing I’ve at all times needed to do.”
Waters shall be following within the current footsteps of fellow Supercars standouts Shane van Gisbergen and Brodie Kostecki, each of whom have competed in NASCAR over the previous 12 months.
Final July, van Gisbergen grew to become the primary driver in additional than 60 years to win a Cup race in his debut when he took victory within the inaugural Chicago Road Race for Trackhouse Racing.
The victory served because the instigator for his full-time transfer to NASCAR, the place he’s working a full Xfinity schedule and partial Cup schedule, each with Kaulig, this season.
Kostecki, who competed within the ARCA East collection in 2013 and 2014, made his Cup debut with Richard Childress Racing final 12 months on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Street Course, beginning eleventh and ending twenty second.
Requested what his endgame was when it got here to a possible NASCAR profession, Waters mentioned it will be a “lengthy journey.”
“Look, I positively have a dream to sooner or later recover from right here and race full-time NASCAR, however to get there, it’s such an extended journey,” he mentioned. “I’ve received a fairly cool factor that’s occurring in Australia racing Supercars and for me to do the odd NASCAR race like we’re doing this weekend, is fairly cool.
“If I can simply do that weekend, get by means of it, that shall be a little bit of enjoyable to work out what NASCAR’s all about after which see what occurs.”
Waters says he is aware of the racing in NASCAR will “completely completely different” to how he approaches a typical Supercars race.
“We have now 12 weekends a 12 months that we’re racing. Over right here we’re racing each weekend. It is a fairly full on, you recognize, model of racing that’s completely completely different,” he mentioned.
“I’ve type of grown up on a mud oval background. I used to race dash late fashions, modifieds. So oval stuff isn’t new to me. I needed to return over and expertise the pavement oval.”
Waters mentioned he’s very acquainted with how NASCAR racing can at instances be fairly aggressive and since he received’t have very a lot follow time to get accustomed to the truck, he’s making an attempt to mood expectations.
“I’ve watched about 50 races, so I’ve type of picked that up myself,” he mentioned. “I spoke to Shane about how he’s clearly tackled the races after which clearly all of the ThorSport drivers have given me a number of ideas with how truck races go down. They are saying it will get fairly wild at instances so maintain on.
“However the way in which I wish to deal with it’s, you recognize, simply end the race, preserve the truck clear and be taught as a lot as I can.”
