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For some NASCAR drivers, there is nothing like playing in the dirt. While many of the Sprint Cup drivers are into the outdoor life with hobbies like hunting, fishing or golf, nothing can compare to sliding a car sideways on a dirt track for others.

Whether it’s late models, modifieds, sprint cars or midgets, it’s a hobby these guys take seriously. Kasey Kahne, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are just a handful of the racers who find the ultimate relaxation in loading up the truck and heading to the dirt tracks whether it’s the red clay of the deep South or the black dirt of the upper Midwest.

GETTING BACK TO THEIR ROOTS

After 38 weeks on the road with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and with other commitments, some drivers took the time between Thanksgiving and the NASCAR Media Tour to spend time with family or relax around the house.

That wasn’t the case with Kahne.

The 17-time winner in the Cup Series is the owner of cars driven by Daryn Pittman and Brad Sweet in the World of Outlaws Series. But, Kahne also had the itch to get back behind the wheel of a winged sprint car himself once the stock car season ended..

“I raced five times in Australia in eight days and the sixth race got rained out,” he said. “I raced two nights in Arizona and three nights in the midgets at the Chili Bowl in Oklahoma. I did 10 nights of racing in 20 days and it felt good.”

The Kasey Kahne Racing team did well racing winged sprint cars in the land down under with Sweet coming out on top and Kahne second in the overall standings. In Arizona, it was another Cup driver, Larson, who joined World of Outlaws champions Paul McMahan, Steve Kinser and Danny Lasoski as winners in the Winter Heat Series.

At the Chili Bowl Nationals, a race which three-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart has won twice, Kahne advanced to the A-Main and finished 13th.

“I didn’t want to come home when it was time to leave the Chili Bowl. I wanted another week or two of racing those cars,” he said. “Driving the sprint cars and midgets on dirt is something that I’ve always had a passion for. They are where I learned to race so I’ve always loved those kind of race cars. Because I don’t get to do it anymore, my team didn’t let me do it for a couple of years, it was nice to get back in the swing of things and to get competitive. Also, there are no commitments, you just do it for yourself.”

A CULT-LIKE FOLLOWING

Danica Patrick didn’t quite understand the passion which boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had for dirt racing until she experienced it first hand.

While she went to Europe at an early age to learn the finer points of road racing, he grew up on the rough and tumble dirt ovals around Tennessee and Mississippi.

It was even hard to understand why Stenhouse, a former USAC sprint car and midget rookie of the year, was so excited about a race in Illinois right before Christmas. That was until she saw how he outdueled sprint car veteran

Bryan Clauson to win the inaugural USAC Junior Knepper 55 in Illinois.

He also raced in the Chili Bowl Nationals where he won the B-Main and advanced to the main event. He finished 16th, some three spots behind Kahne and 11 spots behind Larson. This time, Patrick made the trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where both her parents and Stenhouse’s father and sister joined in to cheer him on.

“It was a lot of fun and honestly, he just loves driving those cars,” Patrick said. “I call it a cult. Anyone who loves dirt racing, it’s like a cult. They talk about it all the time, watch it on their computers, on TV if it’s available. They’re watching the live feed of positions and I’m thinking, ‘It can’t be that exciting.’ But, he loves it. When he won the B-Main to get into the A-Main, I was very happy for him.”

THE DANGERS INVOLVED

A driver takes a risk every time he’s in a car, no matter what the racing surface.

It’s well documented how defending NASCAR champion Kyle Busch missed the first 11 Sprint Cup Series races of last season when he suffered a broken leg in an Xfinity Series race at Daytona.

But it doesn’t compare to the horrors Tony Stewart’s experienced in 2013 and 2014.

In August 2013, Stewart suffered both a broken tibia and fibula in his lower right leg in a sprint car crash in Iowa which ended his NASCAR season.

He made a triumphant return to the cars the following July by winning a race at Auburn (Mich.) Speedway. But three weeks later, Stewart’s outside racing became a nightmare. His car struck and killed driver Kevin Ward Jr. who came down to approach Stewart’s car on foot after the two drivers had gotten together on the track.

Rick Hendrick and Jack Roush were both quoted after Stewart’s 2013 crash which left him with a broken leg as saying they were against their Cup drivers racing sprint cars on the side.

Carl Edwards gave up dirt racing for most part once got to the Cup Series and Richard Childress discouraged his grandsons to quit dirt-track racing once they made it to stock cars’ major leagues.

But, the appeal is great and Team Dillon Racing is still going strong. Stewart, who has done track prep the last two years for the Chili Bowl Nationals, doesn’t rule out racing the Knoxville Nationals or other big events in the future after focusing on the Cup Series in 2015. He’s still one of the most passionate supporters of dirt-track racing in the country, purchasing the famed Eldora (Ohio) Speedway in 2004 and now owner of the All-Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Series.

From 2005-12, Stewart invited several of his brethren from NASCAR and other forms of racing including IndyCar and NHRA drag racing to participate in the Prelude to the Dream, an exhibition featuring dirt late models.

THE APPEAL TO CAR OWNERS

While car owners often want their drivers to scale back or quit racing on dirt all together once they make it to NASCAR’s highest level, they generally love for a driver to have a dirt-track background.

An important part of NASCAR’s early history, Richard Petty won the last Cup Series race on dirt at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in 1970.

Thirty-three years later, Dillon won the Truck Series’ debut race on dirt when he held off Larson and Ryan Newman for the win.

While one might think a dirt background which teaches a driver car control might come in handy at the NASCAR short tracks, Dillon, who races both dirt late models and modifieds, said it actually translates more to the larger speedways.

“When it comes to dirt racing there is a lot higher speed you carry through the corner,” Dillon said.. “Most of the tracks I grew up on are bigger dirt tracks with higher corner speeds. I relate more to the 1 1/2-mile places better. I really had only about eight asphalt Late Model races before I went into the NASCAR East Series. I was successful in the East Series, but short-track racing I’m lacking the experience that other guys have. That’s where I have to get better.”

Larson, who joined Stewart and other legends like former Indy 500 champions A.J. Foyt, Parnelli Jones and Bill Vukovich as a winner of the Turkey Night Grand Prix midget car race in 2011, agreed with Dillon on how dirt racing translates to the Cup Series.

“We’re considered short track racers, but the half-mile or even mile tracks are nothing like the half-mile sprint car tracks,” Larson said. “They’re more like driving a mile and a half track.”