Everybody needs a break, but from what?

You wanna know how crazy it is around the Sprint Cup Series these days? You wanna know how over-focused everything gets?

Some people remember the aftermath of the 2005 Homestead season finale, when in his post-race remarks Mark Martin said that he'd be comfortable starting the next season racing fender-to-fender in Cup cars with Joey Logano.

Most people stopped and said, "Who?" If you cared, Martin was only too happy to explain, at length once you got him going.

The fact that Logano would be 15 during Speedweeks 2006 didn't faze Martin in the least. And now, less than four years later, Logano's potential was fulfilled via his first Cup victory, two weeks ago at New Hampshire.

And that's when the reality of a Sprint Cup driver's schedule, in 2009, hits you smack between the eyes -- or right in the heart.

You would've thought that fact would've meant something to someone in the media group who attended Martin's availability on Thursday. The question never came up, but if it had, Martin's response would've been as amazing as Logano's seemed, two days later, when he was asked if he'd had much chance to discuss it with his mentor.

"We actually really didn't talk that much about it," Logano said, five days after his win, after qualifying was rained out at Daytona. "He sent a few text messages and I called him back and stuff like that, but everyone's schedule is so busy, running back and forth, that you don't see anybody.

"If you think about it, [Thursday at Daytona] I was running back and forth, from end to end [between the Cup and Nationwide garages] and he did the same thing. So with different schedules it's hard to see each other."

Does it make it hard to appreciate anything -- even something that seems like it would demand to be cherished, savored and relished -- at least for a few minutes before the schedule consumes you?

Unfortunately, in this realm the schedule always wins, and the sooner you understand that, the more comfortable you all might have a chance to be with it.

"It's on to the next week, pretty much," Logano said with a laugh. "You're off again."

Obviously, he meant off to the next requirement, not "off" in the way most normal people look at breaks or vacations.

But when you consider how these guys' time is voraciously consumed by their responsibilities, it really makes you thankful, and pretty relieved on the competitors' behalf, that NASCAR's premier league has hit the first of two open weekends it'll have this summer. (Continued)