Waters expects Cup car to “make a lot more sense” than truck

Both he and fellow Supercars driver will Brown are making their first Cup starts this weekend at Sonoma, but Waters already has two NASCAR starts under his belt in the Truck Series, at Martinsville and Kansas.

While the vehicles which race in the Xfinity Series and Truck Series are still quite raw, a modern-day Cup car is said to be quite similar to a Supercar of old and hence should be an easier task for the Australians.

“It’s going to make a lot more sense to me than what the Truck did on an oval, so I’m pretty excited,” Waters said on the Backstretch Banter programme which is produced for his Cup team, RFK Racing, by Sirius XM.

“I’ve done as much prep as I kind of can, so I’ve done a fair bit of sim stuff and watched a bit of onboard vision from a few races.

“The Next Gen car is fairly similar to our old Supercar, our Gen2 Supercar, so it should make a bit more sense to me than what the Truck did, and road course as well is what we race over back home.”

The two-time Bathurst 1000 pole-sitter revealed that his prep for the Cup debut began during his second trip to the United States for a Truck start with ThorSport Racing.

He has also enjoyed time in the Dream simulator owned by Tickford Racing Supercars team-mate Thomas Randle.

“I was lucky I came over for Kansas, did a bit of pit stop stuff at RFK, so that was really helpful,” recounted Waters.

“Did some sim stuff during that trip, to kind of get my head around it a little bit.

“Went back home, raced in Perth and it went okay, and also jumped in my team-mate Tom’s sim at his simulation business, did a little bit more on that, then came back over here and did more sim, more onboard vision, watching races.

“I’m just trying to be a bit of a sponge, take in as much information as I can, and hopefully get a bit of information out of Chris [Buescher] and Brad [Keselowski, RFK team-mates] as well, about the Sonoma track and these cars.”

Xfinity Practice, featuring Shane van Gisbergen in a brand-new Chevrolet Camaro, starts on Friday at 16:05 ET/Saturday at 06:05 AEST, followed immediately by Cup Practice.