Truex: Track position ‘to be so important’ at Sonoma
Sonoma Raceway will host the NASCAR Cup Series this weekend with its newly-repaved racing surface.
In March, Martin Truex Jr. was one of several drivers who participated in a NASCAR Goodyear tire test at the California road course.
Truex, who is a four-time Sonoma winner, said he got a general feel of the track, and hopes to have a good feel for the new surface from the February 2024 repave.
“This time around, it’s going to be important to keep that track position,” Truex said to The Racing Experts.
“I think it’s going to be harder to pass, it’s going to be important to stay out front, strategy, at some point, will come into play, because track position is going to be so important.”
Prior to this year, the last full-course repave for Sonoma was 23 years prior.
On Friday, teams got a 50-minute practice session on the track and some shared their thoughts on the grip level of the track surface and tire wear.
“It feels sketchy at times, but when it sticks it’s fun, yeah,” Tyler Reddick said. “When you lose grip it’s not good.”
William Byron, the most-recent road course winner (Austin), agreed the racing surface can be treacherous.
“If you break traction, it’s definitely less grip, less grip relatively to what you’re going to have when you’re kind of in the groove and rolling,” Byron said.
“So yeah, I think there’s a little bit of that, which is expected with the repave.”
The race is 110 laps with stage breaks and scheduled cautions at laps 25 and 55.
The Toyota/Save Mart 350 is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 9 (FOX/PRN).
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Dominic Aragon View All
Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.
From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book "All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story" with racer Geoff Bodine.
Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.