RLL’s Foster ready to dive in at the deep end for Lime Rock Truck Series debut

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Louis Foster is headed to Lime Rock Park this weekend to take part in his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. The Briton adds his name to recent additions like Dario Franchitti and James Hinchcliffe who’ve taken part in the championship with one-off appearances, and for Foster, it comes through the primary sponsor of his No. 45 RLL Honda.

“Droplight are involved with it all; it’s Droplight's team,” Foster told RACER of the No. 76 Freedom Racing Enterprises Chevy. “They have a driver who does the ovals [Spencer Boyd] and another driver that usually does the road courses [Nathan Nicholson], and he was pre-occupied this weekend. So they were originally just going to pull out and not run, but the guys from Droplight asked me if I wanted to do it and obviously, they knew I was free, and it's something that I've been vocal about previously wanting to give a go.”

The 2024 Indy NXT champion has raced sports cars in the past, so he’s not unfamiliar with having a roof over his head, but strapping into a NASCAR Truck Series entry on the tiny Lime Rock road course will offer two big new learning curves in a short amount of time.

“It's a pretty quick weekend, so it's not too taxing from that standpoint, which is helpful actually,” he said after racing for RLL last weekend in Mid-Ohio and preparing to run next weekend in Nashville. “I did chat to James [Hinchcliffe] at Mid-Ohio about his time in the car at St. Petersburg, and he gave me a few tips and tricks and whatnot, and what to expect and all those kinds of things.

“I've had 1,000,001 opinions from everyone. Honestly, we're going there to have a bit of fun, enjoy it a little bit. It's a good cross-series promo for not only IndyCar and NASCAR, but also for Droplight. We're not expecting to go and win it, but we're expecting to go and do all right. You know, I hope that we can have a successful weekend. What that looks like, I honestly have no idea. There aren't really any expectations going into it. I just want to do as best as I can.”

Foster says he can’t wait to find out what the No. 76 Chevy feels like and what the Lime Rock bullring has to offer when he turns his first laps in the big V8-powered truck.

“I’ll be driving as hard as you can, for sure,” he said. “I know that this car requires a very different driving style, and at times, obviously, driving it as hard as you can is not the fastest way to drive the car, so I’ll be working closely with the team to try and understand what I need to do to be faster. There's not a ton of time for you know working on driving or whatnot because it's such a quick weekend. I don't get a night to sleep on it.

“So it's going to be more about just naturally driving as best I can with the tools I've got. I don't know how competitive the series is going to be on a road course. Obviously, a lot of these guys tend to be oval drivers. That just kind of is the nature of things in NASCAR. You do have a lot of drivers from either a single-seater or GT experience that come in and do quite well because that's what they know through and through, and I'm definitely one of those drivers.

"It would be nice, like James and Dario had, to be able to have a test and a bit of sim time before I get in the car. But unfortunately, I did not have the luxury of doing that, so I'm very much being thrown in the deep end.”