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The defending and two-time Sonoma (Calif.)
Raceway winner led opening practice Friday at the 2.52-mile road
course and looked like a good bet for race day even with a new
twist to the Sonoma turns.
For the first time since 1997, the road course will include its
unique "Carousel" turn, a tough and tight twist through Turns
4-7 of the 12-turn course.
The new look was a hot topic both before the Monster Energy
NASCAR Cup Series rolled into Northern California for Sunday's
Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR
Radio) and throughout Friday's opening practice sessions.
"We definitely learned a lot about it," said Truex, driver of
the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. "I'd never been on it so it
was quite a learning experience for me.
And, he added, "I'm glad we were able to come here, figure out
the track, figure out the race car and how to adapt our set-up
that we've been running here the couple seasons over to the new
turns, and I definitely felt like it worked out pretty well for
us."
While Truex, a three-time winner this season, led the opening
practice, two-time defending pole-winner Kyle Larson paced the
later session. Most of the drivers acknowledged Friday that the
track's new look took a little adjustment even if two of
Sonoma's recent best looked to have figured it out rather
quickly.
It wasn't that way for everyone, though. Four-time 2019 race
winner and two-time Sonoma winner Kyle Busch, for example, had
multiple misadventures navigating the previously unused
carousel, as did Bubba Wallace.
Drivers reiterated Friday that time on the track was truly the
only way to transition the course change.
"The only thing I did in preparation of coming here was to go to
the simulator a little bit," Truex said. "You only get so much
out of that. All the visual cues are there, but you don't have
the feel, the sensation of speed, the g-forces, the rises and
the falls, all of that.
"So to go out there, cold turkey this morning, it was a little
bit weird. It was a little bit hairy. I was trying to figure it
out, and the track was a little dirty. It took a while to get it
figured out, but once we were done with practice, I was really
comfortable with the track. With the changes we made to my car,
I am looking forward to hopefully laying down a good qualifying
lap tomorrow."
Reigning series champion Joey Logano insisted he had similarly
high hopes for Saturday's qualifying and for Sunday's race.
However, the Team Penske driver also spoke about the challenges
of the new-look layout and the wide-open expectations for
Sunday's race.
"I think it affected us before we got here trying to figure out
what it was going to take to go fast through the carousel, but
still have the control you need through the rest of the race
track," Logano said. "You have a few laps trying to figure out
where you are going and what you need in your car and then start
working on it.
"We all have plenty of time to work on it and figure it out. The
thing that is still an unknown is how it races. We got behind
some cars in traffic in practice to see what effect it has to
your car and those little things. There are a lot of unknowns
until we race in all honesty."
That race-and-see refrain was common Friday following practice.
Roush-Fenway Racing driver Ryan Newman said he came to the track
a day early to get an idea of the best technique to tackle the
carousel.
"They let me drive the pace car around just to kind of get a
feel for it," Newman explained. "I couldn't go fast because
there were a bunch of people around the race track, but I wanted
to get an idea of what to expect. It is fine. It will be
interesting to see how it races. It is another half mile of
distance that hopefully will add some excitement and some
passing zones that we kind of needed here."
The upside of the unknown may be an intriguing race day twist,
so to speak.
"I think it is going to be a challenge when you crest the hill
for the first time to see where the accordion effect happens
going back toward Turn 3," Newman said. "You will be on the
brakes in places you have never been on the brakes before. That
will be the biggest challenge, I think."
--Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service, Special to Field Level Media
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