Ryan Blaney gets lazy. Brad Keselowski takes more chances. Hendrick Motorsports drivers get right back down to business.
There is no one-size-fits-all template for navigating a NASCAR winter, but many agree that it looks much different from what a driver is responsible for or does during the season.
“I’m lazier in the winter, for sure,” Blaney told ESPN. “I drink a little bit more. I enjoy the offseason because it’s a long year; I like to relax and unwind.
“Your mindset is so different in the competing months during the year of constantly on kill mode, and as a competitor, you’re trying to figure out ways to better yourself or outsmart the competition. The fire in you is lit all the time, and in the offseason, I try to turn that off. I have no reason to be competitive in the winter.”
The Team Penske driver becomes a more mellowed-out version of himself while enjoying things he can’t during the year. Blaney wasn’t sure how much relaxing he’d do this year considering he and fiancée Gianna Tulio tie the knot Thursday. Once the season ended, it was full steam ahead to wedding day.
“But I turn the competitive nature off and let the mind rest a little bit,” Blaney said. “Your mind is pretty tense throughout the year. It’s nice to get that breath of relaxation.”
The work never ends for Keselowski, driver and co-owner of RFK Racing. Even still, the offseason looks “a lot different,” Keselowski admitted. As such, he has specific plans for his downtime, which includes taking his daughter skiing.
“I’ll probably work out different,” Keselowski said to ESPN. “You’re not afraid of — I don’t want to say tear a shoulder — but getting too sore and not being able to race that week. Things like that. When the consequences go down, we tend to take more chances.
“The offseason goes by so fast. It feels like there is a week between the end of the season and the next season. I know there’s not, but personal life, it’s such a catch-up time.”
NASCAR has one of the longest schedules in professional sports. The first race is early- or mid-February, and the season ends in November.
In 2024, there were two off weekends in the summer because of the Paris Olympics. Cup Series teams competed for 21 straight weeks before the Olympic break. The series then went 14 straight weeks to finish the season.
William Byron and Alex Bowman did not begin their downtime in the days after the finale. The Hendrick teammates had production days (video and photo shoots for the team, sponsors and even broadcast partners) to take care of for the 2025 season. There are less competition-related items, though. Byron anticipated his time to reflect and get away would begin with Thanksgiving.
“It’s pretty busy for the most part,” Byron told ESPN. “You try to give your body a chance to recover from the season. I always feel like there is a period [when] my energy levels are pretty low, and then it ramps back up by December and January. You get a bunch of energy back.”
Bowman didn’t believe there was one week on his calendar for the winter where he didn’t have something to do that was team- or sponsor-related. In fairness, Bowman also loads up on extracurricular activities such as fielding entries in the prestigious Chili Bowl.
“We get some time away, for sure,” Bowman told ESPN. “But it’s not like we have the whole offseason off.”
The time away from racing continues to evolve for Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain.
In years past, he would spend his time in Florida at the family watermelon farm. Not until January would he reappear in the NASCAR community. This year, however, Chastain has more planned for the winter with appearances, trade shows and conventions he couldn’t commit to during the year.
There is also a wedding to attend for his brother Chad. In fact, those activities were planned, in agreement between the brothers, to take place after the season ended.
“The other piece is that I don’t have to feel good on Sundays,” Chastain said to ESPN. “I can do whatever I want to during the week. So, running-wise, I have to taper every week to get back where my legs are fresh, my hips don’t hurt and my knees feel good. I don’t need to feel achy in the car, and for some of the mileage I’m looking to hit, I feel pretty terrible. That’s what’s most exciting, honestly, about the physical side is I can ramp up now.”
And then there is Christopher Bell and Austin Cindric. For Bell, he was quick to point out that he will not be doing any simulator time for Joe Gibbs Racing. He also gets to be laxer about his routines — at least until he starts to miss it.
“A break normally consists of a couple of weeks,” Bell told ESPN. “By the time December rolls around, you’re like, ‘Oh, I feel like lazy. I want to go back to the gym.'”
Cindric was jealous when hearing that Bell didn’t have any simulator time. There are eight-hour shifts at least once a week that have the Team Penske drivers’ name assigned to them. The team also makes time for meetings where it looks for ways to be better; microanalyzing and diving into smaller projects.
Admittedly, Cindric never turns off the competition side.
“It’s all about how much you want to put into it and how much relaxation matters for performance versus studying performance affects performance,” Cindric said to ESPN. “I’m not saying I won’t have any relaxation time during the offseason, but I usually like to keep myself pretty busy.”
There are only 84 days between the 2024 NASCAR season finale and the first time drivers are on track for the 2025 season.