James Davison made the transition from IndyCar racing to NASCAR in 2016, but his first exposure to NASCAR was from the classic racing movie "Days of Thunder."
The 30-year-old is originally from Australia, and he said the movie and the character Cole Tricle were "inspiring" to him before he made the transition.
"When you think this Cole Trickle character was, an IndyCar driver, came from the Indy ranks over to NASCAR, it's obviously exactly what I'm doing," Davison said. "It would be pretty amazing to achieve winning in NASCAR when as a kid it was just a movie. Like a dream that's never going to happen really in my life. I'd never been to America before and NASCAR's so huge and the drivers are so famous and all that stuff. Now here I find myself racing NASCAR."
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Davison has started in the Indianapolis 500 three times since 2014, and he made his Xfinity Series debut in 2016. He is driving the No. 20 car for Joe Gibbs Racing this Sunday at Road America for the Johnsonville 180.
The race will be Davison's third career start in the Xfinity Series, and he secured a top-10 finish in one of his first two races.
Davison's paint scheme for his car was even inspired by Tom Cruise's character in the movie.
Back in the #20 @JoeGibbsRacing Camry. Ready to drop the hammer pic.twitter.com/gQfExQKEdW
— J. Davison (@_J_Davison) August 24, 2017
Davison wants to transition into a full-time stock car driver, and he knows he needs a good race on Sunday to make an impression.
If Davison has an impressive showing on Sunday, it could go a long way in securing funding in the future.
(h/t NBC Sports)