Denny Hamlin Joins Hands With Martin Truex Jr for the Sonoma Repave as He Predicts the Worst for the Grid

Sonoma Raceway decided to bring a new change alongside the new asphalt on the track. The turn 11 barrier will be the white walls that surround the home stretch of the 1.99-mile road course instead of the tire barrier that previously stood in its place.

According to a Sonoma Raceway track representative, the change in Turn 11 was made to “protect the integrity of the racing line.” However, NASCAR drivers, including Martin Truex Jr, released a few statements ahead of the race raising concerns about potential accidents. And now, Denny Hamlin has joined him, agreeing with the same.

Denny Hamlin expresses some concern about the latest tweak at Sonoma Raceway

Track officials have their reasons for the installation. As stated, “We kind of looked back through the past few years, and a lot of the cars were almost every lap, they’re touching those tire barricades. It was moving by up to 20 feet during the course of a race. So went to NASCAR, their competition folks, and then we also met with the drivers competition committee both during the Coke 600 weekend, and they were good with it.”

Yet, there’s an undercurrent of worry. Turn 11, known as the tightest and slowest on the circuit, has drivers slamming on the brakes down a short straight after whipping through the esses. What used to be minor scrapes could escalate into major wrecks. Previously, moving the wall back allowed drivers to dip into a lower lane, finding extra grip on the painted section. Now, with a solid wall wrapping around the bend, it not only cuts down on visual cues but also makes navigating this critical corner a bit more daunting.

Denny Hamlin had a very measured response when he scoped out the new setup during practice. In a conversation with Frontstretch, he mentioned, “It’s a little bit blind, but you’re kind of getting used to it and understanding the radius of how far I got to turn the wheel to make the corner without hitting it. So I think there will definitely be a few that cut it too tight and risk knocking a toe link out, but hopefully it’s not us.“

His sentiments echoed those of Martin Truex Jr who recently said, “It is going to be a little bit trickier. We have seen contact in that corner, many times before, so there is not really anywhere to escape when you have a guy kind of squeezing you going in there, so it could cause some problems, we will see.”

While Hamlin voiced concerns about the changes at Turn 11, he seemed pretty cool with the newly repaved sections of the track.

The #11 JGR driver is convinced that the Sonoma Racetrack is perfectly repaved

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Denny Hamlin has eased up on his earlier criticism of the Sonoma Raceway’s maintenance, particularly after his fallout with track owner Marcus Smith. Initially, he was quite blunt, claiming Smith wasn’t reinvesting enough of the track’s earnings into its upkeep. But this time around, his tone was more lenient.

He said, “Yeah, I mean, there’s definitely a lot of patches on it, but everything has been pretty smooth. Uh, you know, I hadn’t noticed any part of the track that um you could feel the patches; certainly, you can see them. But you can’t feel them so overall I think um you know it ended up a net um you know pretty good result considering all all the extra work they had to put into it.”

Despite the initial squabble, Hamlin’s focus remains on mastering the road courses, which have always been a bit of a struggle for him. However, with the new wall changes at Sonoma, it would be interesting to see how he tackles the track without any scrapes.