[autotag]Martin Truex Jr.[/autotag], the defending winner of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway, went to California for some testing on the track this weekend. Sonoma recently repaved its race surface for the 2024 season and beyond, providing different racing this summer. Truex was joined by Josh Berry and Ross Chastain on Tuesday.
Truex was available to the media in between runs and talked to FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass about the repave. The 2017 Cup Series champion gave an honest review of the surface at Sonoma and discussed how drivers must adapt in the summer.
“So far, it’s a lot faster,” Truex said. “I mean, we’re running faster than track record in race trim for 12 laps…Unbelievably faster. It feels like a different place. It feels even narrower than it used to feel because of the speed. It’s gonna be totally different than ever.”
Martin Truex Jr. gets his 4th career win at Sonoma. He talks with @JamieLittleTV. pic.twitter.com/2hFBBj437I
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 11, 2023
“Usually, you attack all of the corners the same, you’re just doing it a lot faster. A lot more on throttle time, forward drive is a non-issue. It’s all about how deep can you get in the corner, how fast can you get it rotated, and get back wide open. Not a whole lot of finesse and being smooth with the pedals like we used to have to do here.”
Also, Truex said there hasn’t been tire falloff, but there is time to fix that ahead of the June race. The track record speeds are not surprising, and Sonoma could be one of the fastest road courses on NASCAR’s schedule now. It will be fascinating to see how the June race goes and how NASCAR adapts from the March testing.
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