It took just five minutes from the time NASCAR officials called off qualifying Thursday night for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s red Cadillac Escalade to pull out of its parking spot near the Lowe's Motor Speedway media center.

It took just 20 minutes from the time qualifying was canceled for Earnhardt to pull into his driveway at home.

Rain is never good news during a race weekend. But, at least when it happens during activities at Lowe's Motor Speedway, team members can drive home to spend the rainy day.

That's just one of the many perks of racing in Concord near Charlotte, where most drivers live.

"The nice thing about being close to home is a lot of evenings you can go home and be able to put the kids in bed," John Andretti said. "If the schedule works out for you, you can even drop the kids off at school, and still make it to the track for practice."

Imagine that. A weekend to sleep in your own bed, eat in your own kitchen and hang out with you own family.

A race season that books teams for 40 weeks out of the year leaves personnel less than one third of the year at home. With such a hectic schedule, one which is often worse for crews than drivers, the opportunity to spend two weeks near Charlotte in May and another week there in October is a relief, to say the least.

For one thing, instead of catering to the fans, media and sponsors, guys get to cater to friends and families.

"The best thing about racing at Charlotte is being able to be at home all week," Kenny Wallace said. "We have a lot of friends and family that come into town for the race and between myself and all my brothers' houses, we have extremely full houses. I think I have about 15 extra people staying at my house alone."

As nice as it is, it's still not a week off. In the end, these guys are still at work during the weekend. Sure, they get to go home most nights, but they spend almost the entire day at the track. And Saturday nights at home still aren't feasible. Traffic in the area just makes it too inconvenient.

"Going back and racing at Charlotte is like being home, but you are still at the race track all day, and you still have to go to the track," Wallace said.

"You're home, but it's almost like you're still not. You still have to deal with traffic issues. You still can't stay at home every night with the race even in Charlotte. You just can't beat the traffic to make it in time for the race on Sunday. If you want to do that you need to get up at the crack of dawn."

It's not that they're complaining, though. Teams and drivers understand the jam-packed schedules come with having jobs involved in racing. They are simply grateful for the opportunity to spend a little more time at home.

That's why they were so vocal about where The Winston all-star race would be held in the future. The race has always been at LMS and run the weekend before the Coca-Cola 600 -- giving teams those two precious weeks at home in May. But, this year, NASCAR announced it would consider moving the event from track to track.

Drivers and teams, normally quiet when their opinions differ from NASCAR's, instantly began lobbying to leave the race right where it is.

"When you have schedules that are just so tiring and busy as this, these weeks at home mean so much," Kyle Petty said. "Sleeping at home and having an extra day or just even some extra hours to spend with family is so important."

Rupen Fofaria is a beat writer for The Raleigh News & Observer and a regular contributor to ESPN.com.