Jeff Gordon is ready for a drive of a different kind on his weekend off.

Officially, the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series season features weekends away from the track in March and April, but with a grueling 17-race, 17-week stretch - including the November 11 Checker Auto Parts 500 Presented by Pennzoil at PIR - approaching to close 2007, this weekend is the most coveted relaxation time of the season.

That doesn't mean that all of the drivers in the NEXTEL Cup Series plan to just kick back and lounge around before heading to Indianapolis, however. For many, there's still racing to do, and for others, the weekend away from the track serves as a time to be with family.

The newest family man in all of NASCAR, Jeff Gordon, plans to take a short trip in the family Chevrolet with wife Ingrid and their month-old daughter, Ella Sofia. The trip, he says, will give him his first taste of what it's like to be a dad.

"We're just going to drive a couple of hours and see how it goes. Until we get through some of these things, we're not really sure how it's going to be getting in and out of a hectic environment with all the stuff you have to haul around," Gordon said in The Indianapolis Star.

Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, defending series champion Jimmie Johnson, also has a trip in the works with wife Chandra, but their journey will take them slightly further than that of the Gordon family: the Johnsons will fly to Europe to enjoy their time off.

A number of NEXTEL Cup drivers refuse to get away from the track, as they will participate in Saturday's NASCAR Busch Series event near St. Louis, Mo. Busch Series points leader Carl Edwards will be joined by David Reutimann, David Ragan, Dave Blaney, and Reed Sorenson. St. Louis's own Kenny Wallace will get in on the fun too, and Phoenix native J.J. Yeley will also fire the engine and compete in the race.

That's not the only racing going on, though. Edwards, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and others will take to short tracks around North America to feed their racing fevers. Regan Smith - the new driver of the No. 14 Chevrolet for Ginn Racing - will appear in Canada before settling into his first full-time ride at Indianapolis a week later.

The ever-charitable Kyle Petty is already gone on his mini-summer vacation, having left immediately after Sunday's race outside of Chicago to join the annual charity motorcycle ride that raises funds for the Petty-operated Victory Junction Gang Camp. For 13 years, the ride has raised money to help children who suffer from life-threatening illnesses.

Even as the rest of his garage counterparts seem to be on their feet and out the door during the off-weekend, Kevin Harvick and his wife DeLana plan to take it easy.

"Everybody has these trips planned to go to this place and that place," Harvick said to the Star. "Man, we go every week. I don't know why you'd want to leave home."