$1 million and 10,000 tonnes of paving material later, the Sonoma Raceway shines as good as new ready to take on the 2024 Cup Series race. The premier series field travels to the Wine Country region of California for its next step in the race towards the end of the regular season, this Sunday. The fresh repave, though largely welcome, comes with certain challenges for drivers.
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Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones explains one of the hurdles as high pace. He said in a press conference, “Sonoma was always really slick and wore out as far as road courses go so there will be a decent learning curve with this track and the pace; it’s going to be seconds faster. The layout is the same but with the pace being that much higher there will be a period you have to adapt to.”
His crew chief, Dave Elenz, views things on the same lines. He further noted how the raceway was always tricky when it came to handling but now it is even more so with the repave facilitating minimal tire fall-off and high speeds. Jones will have a slight advantage this weekend over his competitors. He got to test at the track after its repave back in April courtesy of the Skip Barber Racing School.
Jones’ teammate, John Hunter Nemechek, believes that track position will play a big role in deciding the outcome of the race. Quite overjoyed at the aspect of traveling to a scenic race track, he quipped to the press, “Looking forward to going back out there — beautiful scenery, beautiful place, and a lot elevation change, it’s a really fun race track. I think track position is going to be key.”
The issues that popped up on the Sonoma track despite fresh repave
The latest track renovation is the first in 23 years for Sonoma. The work began back in December 2023 by a Concord-based excavation company called Bay Cities Paving and Grading and was completed on the 23rd of February, or so it was thought. Just days after the repave was done, it was discovered that two asphalt layers had failed to adhere to the surface in Turn 11.
Pictures of the failure went viral on social media with Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin getting involved in an online feud with Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith over it. Bay Cities employees arrived at the track the day after they learned about the mishap and got down to fixing it. The issue was resolved within 48 hours, on April 4, in time for the Fanatec GT World Challenge races.
