DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. kicked back in a director's chair outside a nondescript Hendrick Motorsports test hauler, clad in blue jeans and a plain white T-shirt, looking every bit the most contented man in the world. And who could blame him? Here he was, freed from the personal squabbles that characterized last season, surrounded by championship teammates, and about to embark on a new career with the most powerful organization in NASCAR.

If only he had a car to drive.

How badly does Earnhardt want to get behind the wheel of Hendrick equipment? Bad enough that he decided on a whim early Monday morning to fly down to Daytona International Speedway, and just watch as his other three teammates tested cars during the opening session of Preseason Thunder. Earnhardt isn't scheduled to test until the second Sprint Cup session, scheduled for next week. But he wanted to be there on the first day of Car of Tomorrow testing at NASCAR's marquee facility, and soak up as much information as he could.

"I don't have any teammates to test with next week. The COT has never been to Daytona. I wanted to make sure if there were some hurdles, I wanted to see them," Earnhardt said. "It looks like the car took right to the racetrack, and our guys are happy with the way they seem. You learn the most the first day, and you try to be around to hear some of that. There's a lot to learn with this car every day. I want to have that in my memory bank when I come back. I really didn't have anything going on today. I'm relaxing, have no responsibilities today, so it's nice to be at the racetrack."

He had plenty to see. Teammates Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears combined to post four of the seven fastest laps in the morning session, with Johnson fastest at 184.82 mph (speeds). The rest of the Hendrick clan was surprised -- if not shocked -- to see Earnhardt, given how mind-numbing testing can be, and the lengths drivers sometimes go to avoid it. Tony Stewart usually skips Daytona testing altogether, a trend that will end this season as he embarks on his first campaign in a Toyota. But Earnhardt has said since even before last season ended that he would do anything and go anywhere in an effort to make his debut season at Hendrick a success. Monday he lived up to that claim, a fact that did not go unnoticed among his teammates.

"I was surprised. Most drivers, if they're not here testing, they don't want to be here," Gordon said. "So I was surprised. I think it says a lot. And it's smart, you know, on his part. So I'm really proud of him for doing that, because he's going to be here without his teammates next week, however the points thing worked out the way it did. We have three here [this week] and one of us next week. I think it really showed a lot, that he's here. I think that was a really smart thing on his part."

Johnson added that Earnhardt's presence was "a huge, huge credit to his commitment, wanting to be here. It's painful watching other cars go around the track, especially here at this type of test session. For him to come down, show the team how committed he is to being up front, winning races and championships, says a lot to the team, his teammates, to the team members and I think to the general racing public that he's down here, ready to go, ready to get after it."

It was all very spur of the moment. Earnhardt and public relations man Mike Davis were chatting online at about 1 a.m. Monday, when the driver was struck by the urge to go to Daytona. Davis scrambled some pilots, and by 8 a.m. the group was airborne. Earnhardt was in the Daytona garage area before even some of the drivers who were testing.

"I'm just ready for the season to start," said Earnhardt, who flew back to the Charlotte, N.C., area early Monday afternoon. "I'll be bored as everybody else when I'm testing myself. I don't know what's different about coming here and goofing off, it's just a lot easier to do that. But when we come here to test, I'll be bored and wishing it was only two days. But I've just been looking forward to the season to get started. The cars are at the racetrack, and I felt like coming to check it out. That's all there is to it."

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Boredom certainly played a part in the decision. Other than a vacation to Australia, Earnhardt's offseason has been a blitz of photo and commercial shoots for his new car sponsors. Driver No. 88 was ready to see some wheels turn.

"I didn't have anything going on today," he said. "I went to a race to watch in Australia, and hadn't done that in a long time. It was fun to be at a racetrack with no responsibilities other than just eating a bunch of junk food and hanging and laughing with your buddies. It's fun to sit and watch everyone else work. This is the first day, and they'll learn a lot today and hopefully I can hear some of the conversations and pick up on some of the stuff they tried to get, the big early gains that they'll find. Because the next two days will be nitpicky stuff for half a tenth [a second] here and there. [Monday] they go out and gain two- to four-tenths a run early on, and I wanted to be here to see that and know what was going on."

Earnhardt's transition from Dale Earnhardt Inc. to Hendrick Motorsports has been underway in earnest since October, when crew chief Tony Eury Jr. left DEI to begin work at his new shop. Now it's a matter of Earnhardt building chemistry with his rest of the Hendrick organization, something Monday's trip to Daytona didn't hurt.

"I think the fact that he's here today means a lot," Gordon said. "It shows where his focus is, and how fired up he is about this season. I think they're going to have a great season. What that necessarily means, I don't know. I mean, we'll just have to wait and see. I know that the equipment is there. Everything is there. But you've got to get the chemistry and you've got to get all the other ingredients it takes to be successful."

And if you're wondering whether Earnhardt could have taken a test run in one of his teammates' cars -- well, so did he.

"That's against the rules," he said. "I already asked about it."