“Probably safer than a concrete wall”: Shane van Gisbergen suggests what NASCAR could’ve done in Turn 11 at Sonoma

Shane van Gisbergen recently commented on what NASCAR could've done at Sonoma's turn 11. Ahead of this year's races at Sonoma, NASCAR decided to remove the tire barriers inside turn 11 and put a white wall in its place.

To SVG, this change to the walls is not only less safe for drivers, but NASCAR could've added other things instead of the wall.

"Tire bundles never normally work either with how they move but the solution for me probably would've been a bigger curb or some astro-turf or something, Astro-turf is normally good so its advantageous not cutting it too much, probably safer than having a concrete wall like that there," Shane van Gisbergen said.

It's worth mentioning that SVG is heading into Sonoma on a pretty high note. The Kiwi registered his first-ever NASCAR Xfinity Series win last weekend at Portland.

And at Sonoma, he emerged as a contender for the win with his speed in the practice sessions. Gisbergen topped the field in speed and time as he came out three-tenths of a second ahead of the driver in second place.

But his comments on the lack of safety of the wall, instead of the tire barriers at Sonoma, echoed among his peers as well.

What other NASCAR drivers said about the turn 11 change at Sonoma and why the change was made

Speaking about the turn 11 change at Sonoma, Denny Hamlin claimed it's now "a little bit blind" but they're getting used to it and understanding the radius of how far they have to turn the wheel without hitting the corner while making it.

Hamlin added that now there will "definitely be a few" who cut in the corner too tight and risk damaging a toe link, which the #11 driver hoped doesn't happen to his racecar.

Brad Keselowski deemed the change from the tire barriers to the wall as "a pretty significant shift" to the racetrack. The RFK Racing driver mentioned that it is "a lot different" hitting a wall compared to hitting a tire, which would affect the risk versus reward proposition and how they race.

But the reason why Sonoma decided to make that change was because of what was happening in the races and a pattern that was observed. A track representative from Sonoma claimed that they looked at the races in previous years and found the cars to be touching those tire barricades and moving them up to 20 feet during a race.

This led to them meeting NASCAR and the drivers' competition committee with the idea of changing the barricades. And because "they were good with it", the tire barricades were changed to the wall.

It'll be interesting to see if the change in turn 11 ends up improving the race more or ends up hurting the racecars more.