Waters, an 11-time winner in Supercars, will make his second Truck start of the 2024 season at Kansas with ThorSport Racing.
He is adamant he would like to find an eventual home in a NASCAR national series, but knows the path is not an easy one.
“I would love to race NASCAR full-time, but getting into NASCAR is very challenging,” Waters said Friday at Kansas Speedway. “And right now, I’m having a lot of fun in Australia and doing the NASCAR races this year. It’s actually been pretty cool. And a good balance, I think.
“So, for now, just get through this weekend, like we did in Martinsville. But just see what may or may not clash later in the year, and that’s kind of a good concept.”
Future plans
Asked if he was more likely to do more races this season or wait until next, Waters seemed focused on the latter.
“Well, more likely next year. I think it gives me more time to find some sponsorship and all that stuff. And you know, look at the calendars again,” he said. “Let’s just get through this weekend and see how we go and go from there.”
Waters’ debut last month was on a short oval at Martinsville while this weekend’s race will test the 29-year-old Australia native on a more challenging 1.5-mile intermediate speedway.
Waters ran well in practice at Martinsville, qualified 22nd of 34 trucks and with teams running varying pit strategies in the race, he got as high as 12th by the start of the final 100-lap stage.
While the first half of the race was mostly calm and incident-free, the final stage was littered with six multi-truck wrecks, two of which Waters got collected in. He would end up 30th but his interest in NASCAR wasn’t deterred.
“I’ve absolutely loved it (in NASCAR). Like, Martinsville, it was awesome, and I didn’t really have any expectations,” he said. “I didn’t really know what to think. But I tried to keep an open mind, and yeah, I just absolutely loved it, had a ball racing, was pretty wild.
“Everyone was telling me it was going to be, and it was and, you know, the team was really helpful and made me feel welcomed and helped me prepare as much as I could.”
Moving to an intermediate speedway, Waters has been preparing with time in the Ford Performance simulator and leaning on his teammates at ThorSport, including reigning series champion Ben Rhodes.
“You know, the big focus was actually just on race craft; the trucks are so unique,” Rhodes said of his discussion with Waters. “We’re just so aero-oriented; everything we do comes down to aero and Kansas isn’t really an exception to that. I would say this might be one of the more aero-sensitive tracks that we go to.
“And the fact that it’s progressive (banking), you can take those runs a little bit differently than some of the other race tracks. So, it was kind of working on that. How to take your runs properly, so that when you have the run, capitalize on it.”
Waters said he looks at his NASCAR races as a “learning experience” and doesn’t place any expectations on himself. Instead, he tries gleaning as much knowledge as possible while on track because of the limited opportunities.
“You know, I want to learn, I want to pick it up, and I want it to go well, but I’m not coming here to win the race. So, I’m not placing any pressure on me for that,” he said. “I think if we can finish (Saturday) night, it would be awesome.
“Obviously, we had good speed at Martinsville, so it’d be nice to try and finish somewhere where that speed was. Coming here being a much different track, I’m not really sure where we’re going to stack up really in the field.
“I think if we can keep it clean for the night, learn as much as I can, hopefully, I’m in the mix. If I can get that back half of the top 10 or even top 15, that would be a great result.”
