by Rea White, NASCAR Scene, FOXSports.com

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With the NASCAR Sprint Cup offseason running a little longer than normal this year, drivers find themselves with some extra time away from the track. That doesn't necessarily translate to time away from their teams, in all cases, or time to do whatever they want. Although most did find a way to squeeze in a little extra personal time, they also worked with their teams to make improvements for the 2009 season.

Ordinal out of range

Hendrick Motorsports' Earnhardt Jr., for instance, found himself handling a variety of racing-related projects. He worked on sponsorship for the Nationwide Series team he co-owns with his boss Rick Hendrick, and on a racing simulation game he's helping develop. He did still manage to find a little personal time.

"I took my family on a trip, which was good," he says. "(It's the) first time me, (brother) Kerry and (sister) Kelly and my sister Taylor have ever been anywhere together as a group, so that was pretty exciting for us. I guess we all had to grow up a little bit and get a little older to appreciate being around each other.

"I've just been kind of keeping it close to home. We got the Whisky River Bar down in Charlotte. Been going down there and hanging out, keeping close to JR Motorsports, trying to get some more sponsorship into the 5 program to get that car running more races, staying in contact with (crew chief) Tony (Eury) Jr., with what's going on with the 88 team. Took my uncles Robert and Jimmy Gee and Tony Jr. to Missouri, went deer hunting the week of Christmas. That was fun."

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Earnhardt Jr. then headed to Nashville, Tenn. last weekend to participate in the fundraising Sprint Sound and Speed event with several other Cup drivers and some country-music stars, while this weekend he is at Daytona International Speedway to participate in the Preseason Thunder Fan Fest. He said that being among the fans once more invigorated him for the coming season.

"You sit around and you've got a couple months off, you really get used to being a bum at the house," he says. "This really starts to bring you back to getting to the race track. I'm excited about going racing at Daytona."

So are others, though most are also excited that they haven't been testing nonstop as part of the traditional NASCAR-sanctioned preseason test sessions this month.

"With the testing being cut out, our weekends are a little but more free, (and so are) our weekdays, because we're not testing as much," says Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin.

Drivers seem to be trying to maximize the impact of having a break from the sport. Practice for the season-opening Daytona 500 begins Feb. 5, and the schedule is fairly busy from there on out. Only four off weekends — one more than usual, it should be noted — dot the schedule for the season.

So once things get going, drivers have little time to catch their breath. Some haven't had much time in general.

Take Gillett Evernham Motorsports' Reed Sorenson. He spent the offseason familiarizing himself with his new organization, watching it undergo a planned merger, and now he will be driving the famed No. 43 once guided by seven-time Cup champion Richard Petty.

Sorenson says that his group has a series of sponsors lined up, but that announcements concerning those cannot be made just yet, and he has already been testing at tracks that don't host any series races. He's also been busy meeting with sponsors.

"The funnest thing I did was I tried to go on a vacation and ended up not going on it," he says.

He did, however, manage to work in some non-racing fun.

"Went snowboarding," he says. "That was probably the best thing I did. It was pretty fun. Fell a lot. It was fun, though. I like getting in the snow. West Virginia, it was a good time ...

"We're actually testing a bunch right now and stuff like that. I thought it would be an easy January, but it ends up actually being the most busy January I've ever had. We're testing a lot. A lot of sponsor events and things like that."

Sorenson is already in the rhythm the season will offer. Others are ready to get there, ready to greet the somewhat hectic pace NASCAR Sprint Cup racing brings to their schedules.

How long that feeling will last is anybody's guess. As Earnhardt Jr. explains, drivers tend to want the part of the year that they are not currently caught up in — whether that is racing or taking a break.

"I'm never satisfied," Earnhardt Jr. says with a laugh. "If I ain't racing, I'm ready to race. If I'm racing, I want a week off. Hard to get satisfied."

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Rea White is a writer for NASCAR Scene, which is published weekly, 50 weeks per year. Visit www.scenedaily.com for more information.