Dearborn, Mich. — Our 2009 Sprint Cup season is only four races old and here I am preparing for an off weekend.

I am not going to lie I am really looking forward to this up coming weekend and not having to go anywhere. I have been at a race track almost every weekend for the majority of my life, serving in one capacity or another for a race team. Typically when the race is over on Sunday another race begins. We try to get to the airport and get back home so we can get prepared to do it all over again the following week.

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My dad first started taking me to Michigan Speedway when I was in second grade to watch the Cup races. Because I was so young, the first couple of times he took me to only watch practice and qualifying, thinking I might not sit still for a complete race. Boy was he wrong. I could not get enough, I wanted to be there for the complete weekend. I wanted to be the first one there and the last one to leave. Since there were only two Cup race weekends a year at MIS and this was not near enough for me, we eventually started traveling to some races as well.

My first Cup race outside of Michigan was the 1987 All Star race at Lowes Motor Speedway. I was in seventh grade and thought I was the coolest guy around because I was in Charlotte, the heart of stock car racing watching my heroes race.

As a youngster we also started to attend the local short tracks in our area: Angola, Ind., Toledo Ohio, and Flat Rock Speedway in Michigan. Most all my summers as a young teenager consisted of Flat Rock on Saturday nights and Toledo on Sundays. I eventually started to volunteer my time and help a local racer, Chuck Roumell. With Chuck’s team I learned so much about what it took to make it in racing. We raced every weekend and worked at the shop throughout the week preparing the race cars.

It was in Roumell’s shop I built my first super late model race car. I started racing every Saturday night at Flat Rock Speedway as well as still helping Chuck with his race cars. Through the mid-1990’s between driving my race car and helping with Chucks there was not much time for anything else.

In the fall of 1998 I moved to Richmond, Va. to become the Team Manager for Mr. Junie Donlavey’s Sprint Cup Series team. I had finally made it, 38 weekends a year I would be at a NASCAR event rubbing shoulders with all of the best in the business. Junie also promised me a chance to drive one of his cars in the ARCA Series as well, even when we had a off Cup weekend we went ARCA racing.

Since I started attending races at a young age my weekends have consisted of going to race track somewhere. Packing up and traveling on Thursday, practice on Friday and Saturday, race on Sunday, and then head home just to do it again the next week. I have never been able to attend weddings, parties, graduations, or many other events that happen during our season. There has really never been any place I would rather be than at a race track.

I have been spotting for Carl Edwards since 2004 and since he started racing in both the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series full time in 2005 we have raced every weekend from February through November. Throw in the mix the fact I raced full time myself in the ARCA Series in 2006 and 2007, and that left no time for anything.

That is why in 2008 I decided I was going to do some things a little different. I went into last season without a fulltime ride, so all I did was spot full time. With Carl running both Series, when one Series is off the other usually has a race. However, without me racing I had some Sundays at home if we had a Nationwide stand alone race or a Saturday night Cup race. Surprisingly I started to thoroughly enjoy some time off. I even planned a vacation in the Caribbean after the last race of 2008 at Homestead. My fiancee and I went to St. Lucia and finally got married. We have always enjoyed the off season traveling to see family throughout the holidays. After several weeks off in the winter I am usually ready to get back to work.

As 2009 started I really did not pay much attention to the schedule, thinking my next off weekend would be Thanksgiving with Carl doing both Series again. I was asked in California what I would do with my weekend off, and that is the first I had heard of it. As I mentioned at the beginning of 2008 I vowed to slow down a little and enjoy some different things in life. So this weekend I think my wife and I will hang out around our house, maybe go to dinner and see a movie. I will try to do some of the things my friends have been telling me about now for several years.

I would not trade what I do for anything. I love to travel, the opportunity to see the country and meet all the wonderful people I have met through the years is definitely worth it. However, the off weekend is a great addition to my lifestyle and to be able to relax and to reconnect with my family and friends. I will be ready to get back to the track next week, all rested at Bristol and try to help Carl steer the Aflac Ford Fusion into victory lane for the first time in 2009.