Time away from Cup better than Martin envisioned (cont'd)

Last weekend, he spent most of the time celebrating the Easter holiday with his family.

"I had a good vacation the last three weeks," Martin said. "I was digging as hard as I could go. Racing with Ricky Carmichael, having a weekend off, the fan appreciation weekend in Batesville were all really special weekends -- all different weekends."

Amid all the time off he didn't miss a single race -- on television.

"It was fun because I [watched] with friends," Martin said.

So did he get the itch to jump on a plane, fly out to the track and strap in for a late-race entry? "No," Martin said firmly.

"Now I have a set of friends away from the track and a set at the track. It started diminishing when I started racing. Really, in the last 30 years, outside of my wife, my crew chief and my team have been my friends."

It's the racetrack friends who take precedence this weekend as the vacation comes to an end. Martin has been nearly flawless in his four starts this year, all of which were top-10 finishes. And he stuck to his commitment of walking away for his break despite leading the points after Atlanta.

Now he's 15th in the standings, 21 points outside of a top-12 position that lock drivers in for NASCAR's Chase. And he has no risk of confusing notes between the Car of Tomorrow and the current car drivers will run this weekend.

He won here in 1998, and half of his starts at Texas have ended in a top-10 finish. Of course, all of those have been in a Jack Roush-owned Ford. But on Friday in a Bobby Ginn-owned Chevrolet he was seventh-fastest in a practice session interrupted by rain.

The showers told the story for Martin as he spoke about how much he enjoyed his time off while sitting across from his No. 01 Chevrolet being tuned. After that vacation, these types of Fridays may get trumped by more lunch dates.

"All three weekends have been completely different, and they have all been something that means so much to me," Martin said with a smile. "I just don't think I would ever give it back up."