The 29-year-old Australian driver, who competes commonly for Tickford Racing in Supercars, has been a longtime fan of NASCAR and can make his debut within the Truck Sequence on Friday evening at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Waters obtained 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 an extra Ford entry this weekend for ThorSport Racing, a perennial contender within the Truck Sequence.
“I’m completely pumped. So excited to be, you understand, lastly having a race over right here in a truck,” Waters mentioned Tuesday. “You recognize, I’ve at all times adopted NASCAR and finished quite a lot of oval stuff myself on grime in Australia.
“That is fairly cool for me and one thing I’ve at all times wished to do.”
Waters will probably 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 turned the primary driver in additional than 60 years to win a Cup race in his debut when he took victory within the inaugural Chicago Avenue Race for Trackhouse Racing.
The victory served because the instigator for his full-time transfer to NASCAR, the place he’s operating a full Xfinity schedule and partial Cup schedule, each with Kaulig, this season.
Kostecki, who competed within the ARCA East sequence in 2013 and 2014, made his Cup debut with Richard Childress Racing final 12 months on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Highway Course, beginning eleventh and ending twenty second.
Requested what his endgame was when it got here to a possible NASCAR profession, Waters mentioned it might be a “lengthy journey.”
“Look, I positively have a dream to someday recover from right here and race full-time NASCAR, however to get there, it’s such a protracted journey,” he mentioned. “I’ve obtained a reasonably 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 it, that will probably 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 totally different” to how he approaches a typical Supercars race.
“We’ve 12 weekends a 12 months that we’re racing. Over right here we’re racing each weekend. It is a fairly full on, you understand, fashion of racing that’s completely totally different,” he mentioned.
“I’ve form of grown up on a dust oval background. I used to race dash late fashions, modifieds. So oval stuff isn’t new to me. I wished to return over and expertise the pavement oval.”
Waters mentioned he’s very accustomed to how NASCAR racing can at occasions be fairly aggressive and since he gained’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 form 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 just a few suggestions with how truck races go down. They are saying it will get fairly wild at occasions so maintain on.
“However the way in which I need to deal with it’s, you understand, simply end the race, hold the truck clear and be taught as a lot as I can.”