The 29-year-old Australian driver, who competes regularly for Tickford Racing in Supercars, has been a longtime fan of NASCAR and will make his debut in the Truck Series on Friday night at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
Waters got a firsthand look at the .0526-mile oval over a year ago when he visited the track which sparked a 12-month journey to find a competitive NASCAR ride that also matched up with his Supercars schedule.
He will drive an additional Ford entry this weekend for ThorSport Racing, a perennial contender in the Truck Series.
“I’m absolutely pumped. So excited to be, you know, finally having a race over here in a truck,” Waters said Tuesday. “You know, I’ve always followed NASCAR and done a lot of oval stuff myself on dirt in Australia.
“This is pretty cool for me and something I’ve always wanted to do.”
Waters will be following in the recent footsteps of fellow Supercars standouts Shane van Gisbergen and Brodie Kostecki, both of whom have competed in NASCAR over the past year.
Last July, van Gisbergen became the first driver in more than 60 years to win a Cup race in his debut when he took victory in the inaugural Chicago Street Race for Trackhouse Racing.
The victory served as the instigator for his full-time move to NASCAR, where he is running a full Xfinity schedule and partial Cup schedule, both with Kaulig, this season.
Kostecki, who competed in the ARCA East series in 2013 and 2014, made his Cup debut with Richard Childress Racing last year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, starting 11th and finishing 22nd.
Asked what his endgame was when it came to a potential NASCAR career, Waters said it would be a “long journey.”
“Look, I definitely have a dream to one day get over here and race full-time NASCAR, but to get there, it’s such a long journey,” he said. “I’ve got a pretty cool thing that’s going on in Australia racing Supercars and for me to do the odd NASCAR race like we’re doing this weekend, is pretty cool.
“If I can just do this weekend, get through it, that will be a bit of fun to work out what NASCAR’s all about and then see what happens.”
Waters says he knows the racing in NASCAR will “totally different” to how he approaches a typical Supercars race.
“We have 12 weekends a year that we’re racing. Over here we’re racing every weekend. It's a pretty full on, you know, style of racing that’s totally different,” he said.
“I’ve kind of grown up on a dirt oval background. I used to race sprint late models, modifieds. So oval stuff isn’t new to me. I wanted to come over and experience the pavement oval.”
Waters said he is very familiar with how NASCAR racing can at times be quite aggressive and since he won’t have very much practice time to get accustomed to the truck, he’s trying to temper expectations.
“I’ve watched about 50 races, so I’ve kind of picked that up myself,” he said. “I spoke to Shane about how he’s obviously tackled the races and then obviously all the ThorSport drivers have given me a few tips with how truck races go down. They say it gets pretty wild at times so hold on.
“But the way I want to treat it is, you know, just finish the race, keep the truck clean and learn as much as I can.”
