diff --git a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
index e938520403d68ab7a68d0a53c1b8517533c09561..adb6ce9ace73ce6d3d9e2ac7c01e2bb2ac7b9912 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
+++ b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
@@ -607,7 +607,7 @@ run_configs = set(_CONFIGS[cfg]
 build_configs = set(cfg.build_config for cfg in run_configs)
 
 if args.travis:
-  _FORCE_ENVIRON_FOR_WRAPPERS = {'GRPC_TRACE': 'surface,batch'}
+  _FORCE_ENVIRON_FOR_WRAPPERS = {'GRPC_TRACE': 'api'}
 
 languages = set(_LANGUAGES[l]
                 for l in itertools.chain.from_iterable(