Cam Waters knew exactly what he was getting into and embraced the NASCAR Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway even after crashing out of it in his North American Stock Car debut on Friday night.
The 29-year-old Australian Supercars contender, whom finished runner-up to Shane Van Gisbergen in the 2022 championship, visited the spring NASCAR weekend at Martinsville last year and came away from the experience wanting to try it himself.
Driving the No. 66 for ThorSport racing Ford F-150, Waters started 22 and spent most of the race inside the top-15 before getting crashed out with 24 laps to go, an outcome Waters always accepted as a possibility.
Regardless, he had fun racing and accomplished many of his goals.
“I had so much fun tonight and all day today,” Waters said after getting released from the infield care center. “It is totally different racing from what I usually do, and I just wanted to learn. Box checked, I learned so much. There at the end, I just had nowhere to go and knocked the radiator out of it.
“It’s a shame the crash happened, but I was having fun and learning and had some awesome battles along the way too.”
Waters found himself as high as 13th by the end of the second stage, being called down pit road at that point with the hopes of gaining track position once everyone else pitted, but that’s where the racing turned chaotic.
He even anticipated it, joking over the radio before the final stage, that this is where everyone starts to lose their minds behind the wheel. It was unfortunately a fortuitous sentiment.
“Just the racing was so robust out there. Everyone is into each other,” said Waters. “There is still a bit of respect, but it’s totally different from what we do in Australia. I love it. You can bump a little and give some back a little without putting someone in. That was probably the biggest thing.”
In Supercars, the slightest contact results in penalties from race control.
Waters eventually hopes to follow Marcos Ambrose and Shane Van Gisbergen as Supercar aces to eventually race full-time in NASCAR and leaned on both over the past several months.
“I didn’t really have any expectations,” he said. “I have watched a lot of races and knew it was going to be pretty crazy, though. Shane and Marcos Ambrose told me it was going to be wild out there … and even all the drivers when I got here said the same thing. It was definitely wild, but I loved it.
“It was genuinely a lot of fun. Everyone was into each other a bit, and the racing was pretty hard.”
Waters has yet to win a Supercars championship, and currently driving for Ford affiliated Tickford Racing, that is his primary goal but hopes to do that and then come over to the United States to race. He also races 410 Sprint Cars on the side.
“I love oval racing and do a lot of dirt stuff at home,” Waters said. “I always watch NASCAR and this was my first proper taste of it to see if I liked it or not, and honestly I love it. I still have unfinished business back in Australia, though, and I have an amazing team there that I have been trying to win a championship with.
“Right now, we’ll go back home and win some races in Aussie, and then see if we can get back here again.”
And despite the rumors in the garage circulating that he will next race this No. 66 truck at Kansas Speedway in May, he says no such decision has been finalized.
“Tonight is the first and only race that we have planned to be honest,” he said. “I just wanted to get through tonight and see how we did, because like I said, I have stuff to focus on in Supercars. We will look at the schedule and see if there are other things we can do … but that’s all wait and see for now.
“Like I said, though, I had a ton of fun out there.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.