Just how dissimilar a group of athletes participate in the Sprint Cup Series is borne out by what they plan when an all-too-rare period of "off time" presents itself.

But it also proves just how gripping the allure of racing stock cars is.

So much so that a great number of Sprint Cup competitors, faced with the final break before 17 consecutive race weekends close this season, are opting to race rather than escape -- and this is after racing for the last 12 weekends.

Clint Bowyer is one of four Sprint Cuppers that's locked-into participating in Saturday night's Nationwide Series event at Gateway International Raceway; and he fully understands a reason for being outside St. Louis this weekend, aside from anywhere else he could be.

That is, of course, besides the fact that he holds a 183-point lead on Nationwide regular Brad Keselowski after 20 of 35 races.

"It's a good opportunity without all the Cup regulars [racing] to run up front and, hopefully, win a race," said Bowyer, who's won once already this season. "We're leading the points right now and, hopefully, we can extend that lead and move forward."

Defending series champion Carl Edwards, David Reutimann and David Ragan also must be in Madison, Ill., this weekend because they've opted to run the full Nationwide schedule in addition to Sprint Cup's 36-races.

Of course Edwards, who has his own ideas about relaxation, for the second consecutive year decided not to make the 18-minute flight from his home in Columbia, Mo., to Gateway; instead choosing to do a three-day, 180-mile bicycle cruise.

But Jamie McMurray and Reed Sorenson have only made spot Nationwide starts this season, so something else must be driving them -- though at least McMurray got to mix what most citizens would consider pure fun into his track time, which is apparently all the fun that matters to this bunch.

Last Tuesday, McMurray flew to Los Angeles for the taping of the 2008 ESPY Awards on Wednesday evening, after being nominated for his victory in the 2007 Pepsi 400 Sprint Cup race at Daytona International Speedway.

"This is a very busy week, but certainly it's a lot of fun," McMurray said. "[I spent] a couple days in L.A. [then flew back to Indiana and] practiced my go-kart for a day, then I fly to Gateway for the Nationwide race, and then back to Indiana for the go-kart race on Sunday."

For McMurray, his decision is purely driven -- as Edwards' bike trips have been -- by the fun factor.

"It's pretty cool to go back to St. Louis for the race," McMurray said. "I think it's been six years since I've raced there. This weekend, I'll be in the No. 17 Ford, which has been pretty fast the last few races [so] I'm excited to work with the No. 17 guys again.

"It's going to be fun, but pretty busy. I [was] really looking forward to the ESPY Awards, and then a full weekend of racing. It'll be fun to race in the Nationwide race on Saturday, and then be able to race my go-kart on Sunday."

Sorenson might have an even more compelling reason to give up relaxing this weekend. He won at Gateway in 2005 after leading the most laps on the 1.25-mile oval; then won for the first time in about two years when he captured this event a year ago. It's his last victory.

Doing it because they want to

Turner Sports New Media

Johnny Sauter will race at one of his favorite short tracks -- Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Why do they race? Matt Kenseth joined some select company amongst Midwestern Late Model racers, including Dick Trickle, Joe Shear and Lowell Bennett, when he won his fourth Slinger Nationals title last Tuesday at Slinger (Wis.) Super Speedway.

Kenseth was supposed to race Thursday night at the Eagle Raceway dirt track near Lincoln, Neb., with Bowyer, Ken Schrader and Sterling Marlin; but weather postponed that. Kenseth's schedule included the sold-out ninth annual Matt Kenseth Fan Club gathering on Friday evening in his hometown of Cambridge, Wis.

But then he will be back on the road to compete in the ASA Super Late Model event, the Rasmussen Group Twin 75s, at the Iowa Speedway in Newton.

"It's funny," Kenseth said. "Most guys take their off week to go to the beach or to get away from racing and I'm doing just the opposite; but I always have a lot of fun racing Late Models and racing with no pressure of points or anything.

"I really look forward to this week a lot and think it will be a nice change of pace for me."

Michael Waltrip is another competitor who's busy balancing the responsibilities of owner and driver, but in the end, his decision for the weekend ended up in favor of racing, as part of SPEED Channel's broadcast crew for the Kentucky Speedway truck race.

"What am I going to do during my off weekend?" Waltrip asked. "One thing I know for sure is I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be perfect and it pretty much sums up how much I love racing.

"I had other options of stuff to do but after weighing my options, I elected to go to Kentucky Speedway to be a commentator on the truck race broadcast. I just love doing the trucks on television; it's near and dear to my heart so I hope everyone will be watching!"

Not surprisingly, Kyle Busch, who earlier this season entertained thoughts of competing for all three NASCAR national touring division titles, kind of epitomizes the "racing fool" attitude exhibited by many of his cohorts.

Busch also raced at Slinger last Tuesday along with Kenseth and several other Nationwide and Truck Series regulars. Busch is in Sparta, Ky., for Saturday night's Truck Series race, where he'll try to move owner Billy Ballew's No. 51 Toyota up from fifth in the standings, only 63 out of first.

"I want to keep Billy up front and no one else can do it," Busch said. "I think it's cool that as long as he's been in the sport, he's finally got a chance to win a championship and I want to help him keep that alive. He's been around so long and he's never had a full-time driver capable of winning him a championship -- I'd like to be the one to do it for him."

And if that wasn't enough, Ballew's truck crew chief, Richie Wauters and some other crew members will travel with Busch to Iowa, where he'll again compete with Kenseth in the ASA races on Sunday.

"It's not exhausting," Busch said of racing multiple events in a weekend. "I'm a racer and I enjoy doing it. We have a lot of fun in the Late Models and having the weekend off in the Cup Series just gives us an opportunity to go to a couple local tracks and have some fun."

Paint Kevin Harvick with the same brush. Despite being in the middle of an intense Chase for the Sprint Cup qualifying battle and owning championship contending teams in the Nationwide and Truck Series, when faced with the final off weekend of his Cup schedule, Harvick went to the calendar to find -- a race.

He found one in the TD Banknorth 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway, which gained its legend decades ago as the Oxford 250, including several years on the Busch Series schedule.

"I've heard nothing but good things about Oxford Plains Speedway," Harvick said. "From all the stories I heard about last year's race, I can only imagine what this year's has in store."

Not one to mess around when it comes to his racing, Harvick has built a Late Model car specifically to contend at Oxford.

"When it's all said and done," Harvick said. "I'd like to tell people that I not only made the show, but won the race."

That's also Johnny Sauter's plan. Sauter, one of the youngest members of the legendary Midwest racing family, has had an off-and-on season, where he's currently part of Haas CNC Racing's driver rotation in its No. 70 Sprint Cup Chevrolet.

But this weekend he's looking to get back to his roots with his own Late Model in a doubleheader -- Friday night and Sunday afternoon -- at a track he considers one of his all-time favorites, Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

His choice to race was simple.

"What's amazing about Hawkeye Downs is the first time we went there, we won and it was my first win [in ASA], Sauter said. "I had a lot of success there and I really don't know why [but] it's a racetrack I'm very fond of and I have a lot of great memories and it will be great to be back short track racing."

Dave Blaney has a little dirt track on his property in North Carolina, and both his son Ryan and daughter Emma have raced for years. But this weekend, the Blaney men are making a quantum leap as Ryan, 14, will make his first Late Model start, in a big event weekend at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, N.C.

That will be Blaney's warm-up for a special event benefiting Special Olympics on the Wednesday before Indianapolis activity opens, at Schrader's I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Mo. Joining Blaney and Schrader on the card to race UMP Modifieds are Terry and Justin Labonte, Tony Stewart, defending Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday, Steve Wallace, Truck racers Brendan Gaughan and Dennis Setzer; and up-and-coming stock car racer Ricky Carmichael.

An old-fashioned break

Autostock

Jeff Gordon and his family left the country before the grind of the final 17 weeks.

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson, the two-time defending Cup champion and Jeff Gordon, a four-time champion, share one other affinity: Travel. And both of them are taking advantage of the Cup Series' down time to do some.

Specifically, Gordon took a trip overseas with wife Ingrid and year-old daughter Ella to tune up for Gordon's home-state favorite event, the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard.

Team owner Richard Childress, despite having his championship contending Nationwide Series team in action, preferred to get away to his spread in Montana.

The beach beckoned for several families, including Haas CNC Racing's Scott Riggs and his gang. While Childress' Cup championship contending pilot Jeff Burton did go Quarter Midget racing on Tuesday with son Harrison; quickly after, the family left for a week-long vacation trip to the shore.

Virginian Elliott Sadler is heading to one of his favorite haunts, Nags Head, N.C., to play in a golf tournament.

Bill Davis Racing crew chief and competition director Tommy Baldwin did the same thing, heading with his family to Davis Beach. Cup rookie Michael McDowell and his wife went towards the South Carolina shore.

"My wife Jami and I are taking a trip to Charleston," McDowell said. "We tested at Milwaukee earlier in the week and I had some interviews on Wednesday, but I'm taking the rest of the week off to relax a little before we travel to The Brickyard."

Another Wisconsinite, Yates Racing driver Travis Kvapil, took his family home, but begrudgingly said racing wasn't in the mix.

"I guess as a driver I'd like to be in the car every week [because] it's harder on the crew guys and the guys at the shop than me, for sure, as a driver -- and I guess when things are going good you like to just try to keep that momentum rolling nice," Kvapil said. "But, everybody likes a weekend off. It can go either way [but] it's going to be great for me."

Racing, which the Woods of Stuart, Va., have enjoyed as a family entity for about 60 years, will only take half a backseat this weekend. Eddie Wood, one of the owners of Wood Brothers Racing, will be in Kentucky where his son, Jon, will be racing.

His brother and co-owner, Len and Uncle Leonard, one of the team's co-founders, will join a family reunion in Stuart on Saturday.

Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, was going to be relaxing around home and doing a little bit of work -- as was team owner/driver Robby Gordon, at his North Carolina shop. Dale Earnhardt Incorporated teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Paul Menard had nothing major on their radar scopes.

"Being that it's the last weekend off until Thanksgiving, I'll definitely be taking advantage of the opportunity for some R&R," Menard said. "Perhaps I'll enjoy a game or two of racquetball with [teammate] Regan [Smith] and [Craftsman Truck racer] Matt [Crafton]."

Bowyer did profess to a bit of mixed feelings as he raced around the country instead of allegedly relaxing.

"[Maybe] a little bit jealous," Bowyer said. "It's the last weekend off and it's getting to the point of the season where it drags on a little bit and you're ready for a break and don't get one. Certainly an off-weekend would be fun."

But Bowyer did confess some second thoughts.

"Sometimes my off-weekends and vacations are more work than they are fun. I'm usually more worn out after an off weekend than I would be had I gone to the racetrack. Maybe racing every weekend is a good way to keep me grounded.

"But hey, I put myself in this position and I'd do it again. I love racing in the Nationwide Series. It's fun and it's competitive. There's a lot of talent in this series and I'm glad to be a part of it."