NASCAR drivers enjoy brief respite from racing
By Rea White
Monday, December 24, 2007
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While most people try to find the perfect week to take a vacation, NASCAR drivers have a little less diversity when it comes to picking the right time to take a few moments to themselves.
With the 38 weeks of racing, plus NASCAR-sanctioned testing in January and tests at non-sanctioned tracks at other times over the course of the season, drivers find their schedules filling up rather quickly. There are other commitments they must meet as well, further slimming down the available days on the calendar.
So when the offseason does loom, when drivers finally have a few weeks of free time, most take advantage of it as much as possible.
While it may be true that competition is never far from their minds, drivers recognize the importance of having a little bit of down time and a bit of peace and quiet.
What form that takes varies, though. Some drivers have already been testing at tracks in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and other places. Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin ran a Late Model race, JGR's Tony Stewart, Gillett Evernham Motorsports Kasey Kahne, Hall of Fame Racing's J.J. Yeley and Penske Racing's Ryan Newman are already signed up for the upcoming Chili Bowl. Others have taken a little time to get away from it all.
Several of the top drivers had plans to just relax, step away from racing and find some time to themselves or to spend with their families.
After the hectic pace of the offseason, that was something they needed.
"Now that I'm a dad, it takes me in a little bit different direction," Hendrick's Jeff Gordon, season runnerup, said of his offseason plans.
He'll be spending time with his new daughter, Ella, and wife Ingrid. Others have plans for some personal time as well.
"I'm going to do a little more hunting, I've got a few more trips lined up. I've got to take my girlfriend on vacation somewhere or she's not going to be happy," Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s Martin Truex Jr. says. "Not really any big plans. I like to spend some time at home, relax, just do what normal people do. Just chill out. We'll see what happens."
Mainly, like everyone else, they just want some time away from the job, time to do whatever it is that they want to do, whenever they want to do it. Time to rest their minds and bodies before they head into the full throttle run of another season at NASCAR's elite level.
For a few weeks, thoughts of how to make NASCAR's new car handle a little better, how to find a little more speed in a car, drift into the background as drivers become just like everybody else when they are on vacation.
"For the most part in the offseason, I just want to get away from everything and everybody and do things that I want to do and do things that let me relax," Stewart says.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. seems to have divided his offseason into two segments. He's obviously spent time in Australia during December, hanging out and trying out a different type of car when he took the wheel of a V8 Super Car with Marcos Ambrose. But, he said at season's end that he planned to also spend a little extra time with his new Hendrick Motorsports team and long-time crew chief Tony Eury Jr. in January.
"Tony Jr. is going to tell me whatever I've got to do," he said. "Whatever he thinks we need to do, we'll do it. They've already been testing a little bit. I'll do whatever they need for me to do.
"... if Tony Jr. says we have to work every day in January, I'll be the first one on the sounding board making it happen and helping him. I want to be right and I want to do whatever it takes to be right and will work all night."
Others just can't stay away from competition - in some form. And that doesn't just apply to those who have been testing for next season.
Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards, who finished ninth in the Cup standings while winning the Busch Series championship, said that he was looking forward to the break. He planned to start flight training in December, then taking some time to himself.
"I'm really looking forward to Christmas," he said. "I'm going to have some time off. I think we're going to go somewhere crazy, out of the country, where they don't speak English and don't know anything about NASCAR, and get a week or so of that. But, I like racing. I'll probably end up doing something during the winter. We started a [remote-control] car track back home, so we'll race some of those a little bit."
Still, the competition goes on. No matter how much time off might be needed, the next season looms and teams know that they need to be prepared.
As he prepared to celebrate his seventh NASCAR Cup championship, team owner Rick Hendrick offered some insight into what the offseason means for teams that are trying to stay on top.
He also shows how teams are never really very far from racing, regardless of whether it is the offseason or not.
"The biggest motivation in motorsports, to me, is going to New York and sitting out in the audience and watching somebody get the trophy," he said. "I've done it before. Man, it fires you up to go to work."
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Carl Edwards
Comments
1 response to "NASCAR drivers enjoy brief respite from racing"
sally whan said:
Aug 18, 2008 at 7:59 AMI THINK THEY ALL NEED TO CHILL OUT AND HAVE SOME FUN AND LOTS OF REST BEFORE THE NEXT SEASON STARTS AND ALL THE WEEKS ARE GO GO....HAVE A REAL GREAT TIME GUYS AND ENJOY IT WITH YOUR WIFES,AND FAMILY....
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