Balance is the key, rookie-san.(NASCAR)

Clint Bowyer looked like any wide-eyed kid from Kansas seeing the Big Apple for the first time.

As the skyline came into view, he bounded across the aisle of Richard Childress Racing's EMB 120 Brasilia and craned over passengers, hoping for a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty or Yankee Stadium or the Empire State Building.

After landing, Bowyer, 26, yearned to see Times Square, but time was not on his side last Tuesday. A van waited to whisk him off to the unveiling of The Sopranos car he will drive March 12 in Las Vegas.

From the view atop Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, he could see Manhattan across the East River, but that's the closest Bowyer came to taking a bite out of the Big Apple. There was work waiting for him back at the Welcome, N.C., shop before he had to leave for last weekend's events at California Speedway.

Welcome to the glamorous world of Nextel Cup racing. Long gone are the days when drivers could even think of working on their cars. For the short period of time that is spent racing, the commitments outside the cockpit are exponentially greater.

Bowyer is busy enough in the car, considering he's running full time in the Busch and Cup series. Before the season started, he tested in both series at Las Vegas and Daytona. For his sponsors, he has traveled to the Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg, Tenn., to General Motors in Detroit twice and to Las Vegas.

For drivers accustomed solely to racing, the weight of the extracurricular schedule can be heavy, even with the luxury of private transportation. If a young competitor lacks a solid support system, it's easy to spin out of control. Organizations must find ways of insulating drivers to avoid burnout.