Veteran crew chief's impressions of Waters

That's the clear statement which sums up the impression Cam Waters has made on NASCAR Truck Series squad ThorSport Racing.

Four weeks on from his debut at Martinsville Speedway, Waters is back in the United States for his second start, this weekend at Kansas Speedway.

And he's quickly making his mark, according to crew chief Josh Hankish.

"He's been awesome to work with," Hankish, who has been with ThorSport for more than a decade, told V8 Sleuth.

"You can tell he's a true professional, you can tell he makes a living driving race cars, takes it very seriously, does all his homework whether it be watching videos, studying, he asks a lot of great questions. He is very impressive.

"He might be a rookie, it might all be new to him, but he reminds me of some of the veteran drivers I've worked with, just with his preparation and how he goes about everything."

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The name that stands out to Hankish is his long-time driver Grant Enfinger.

Enfinger won the 2015 ARCA Menards Series, was the 2023 Truck Series runner-up, and made his Cup Series debut last year.

"I can actually draw a comparison between those two, just with how they approach everything and the work they put in outside of the race car, studying, watching previous races, simulator time, and following up after the simulator time on what we did so he can make sense of why each change did what it did," said Hankish.

Waters' pace straight out of the gates at Martinsville was better than maybe it showed on paper, before he got tangled in a wreck during the race.

"He did really well. For that to be his first experience in that world and to go out in practice and be second-fastest or whatever it was in his group and 12th fastest overall was pretty darn impressive, really," Hankish said.

"Qualifying I think we kind of got the short end of the stick, just with changing drivers, that meant we had to go out early in qualifying and I feel like the track picked up speed.

"But his qualifying time was faster than the pole from the year before, so when that happened, we thought we were going to be sitting about top five and then the track continually got faster and faster as it cooled down.

"So the qualifying effort I don't think really reflected how good the truck was and how good of a job he did."

The high-speed aerodynamics in play at Kansas will be a whole new ballgame, though.

"It's going to be a completely different challenge, just because of the traffic and how to manoeuvre," said Hankish.

"You cannot just follow somebody into a corner because you will get too aero tight behind them.

"But it does provide the ability to run the top lane to the bottom lane, so it does give you more of an opportunity to pass, where Martinsville is pretty hard to pass."

Hopes, nevertheless, are high.

"We've never really talked about that. I mean, my expectations are pretty high just because I think he is very talented and can do it," he added.

"I would love to see us run inside the top 10 all night and for him to have a nice clean race and not get caught up in anything silly that's not his fault.

"But I feel pretty confident. As an organisation we've always been pretty good at Kansas."