Oh, how he loved those Sundays off.

The money wasn't as big and the spotlight wasn't as bright, but no question, working in the Nationwide Series had its advantages. The relatively lower levels of attention and pressure provided a crew chief with a little more time and space in which to think. The shorter schedule meant more weeks off the road. And then there were the Sundays, those glorious free Sundays, when Dave Rogers could be just a husband and a father as NASCAR's big show raged full throttle somewhere else.

“

My wife and two boys make more sacrifices than anyone, in my opinion anyway. But they're happy. The two boys love the M&M's car. Dad comes home in a good mood. So life is good.

”

-- DAVE ROGERS

He loved that lifestyle, had no plans to give it up -- until late last season, when Joe Gibbs Racing asked him to replace Steve Addington on top of the box for Kyle Busch's team. He didn't need the Sprint Cup tour, honestly didn't have much desire to move up to the Sprint Cup tour, especially after the way it had treated him before. But the Gibbs family had always been good to him, finding a place for him within the organization even after the most difficult chapter of his career. Busch was the caliber of driver a crew chief could only dream of working with. Rogers made what he called one of the toughest decisions of his life, and took the leap.

"I think Dave has done a really, really nice job," Busch said Sunday after a third-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway that was a rolling clinic in crisis management. "He came into this deal not knowing a whole lot about these cars. He's really gone to work, learned, made a lot of sacrifices. I can't thank him enough for doing it. His family has made sacrifices. He hasn't been home a whole lot. Pretty proud of the way our results are paying off."

The results speak for themselves -- two wins, seven consecutive top-10 finishes, and a second-place standing in points for a program that appears back on stride after a sluggish finish to a 2009 campaign that saw Busch miss the Chase by eight points. It's also a validation of the decision made by Rogers, who seven months ago looked anything but thrilled to be giving up his comfortable, successful career on the Nationwide tour to return to the fishbowl that is Cup racing. He was perfectly content winning races and getting to spend more time with young sons David and Matthew, now 7 and 4, respectively. The idea of going back to the big show filled him with more reservations than Spago on a Friday night.

Now? One look at Rogers in the early hours of Monday morning, head under the hood of the No. 18 car during post-race teardown, examining the innards with a flashlight, smiling and joking with his crew -- that said it all. The decision was a difficult one, no doubt. But to this point, it's been the right one. (Continued)