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You can tell the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers are ready to go racing again, especially since they didn’t have to come to Daytona last month to go and test. By now, just about everyone’s sick of talking about racing and ready to actually be racing.

Asked what the hardest part of his job is, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said, “Answering a lot of questions. I got to answer so many damn questions. I never wanted to be asked so many questions. I just wanted to drive but that’s not all there is to it.”

Speaking of Earnhardt, his performance tailed off noticeably at the end of last season. But now that he has new teammate Mark Martin bird-dogging him to workout, it’ll be interesting to see if Junior finishes 2009 stronger than he did ’08. “There is a time in your life you have to take a little responsibility and try and take a little bit better care of yourself,” said Earnhardt. “I have 20/13 vision in each eye and both eyes together. But my cholesterol got a little bit higher, so I am trying to eat better and not eat so many fried foods. Trying to drink a lot more water too, drink too many sodas. It is like 300 times better for you.”

• During last month’s media tour in Charlotte, I caught a few minutes with Max Jones, co-owner of Yates Racing, who was very enthusiastic about new hire Paul Menard. “I think Paul’s going to surprise a lot of people,” Jones told me.

Well Menard will get his first chance to impress in Saturday night’s Bud Shootout, where he’ll start from the pole, thanks to picking the winning number in Thursday night’s Shootout Draw party. “It’s a great way to start the year,” said Menard. “Just being in the Shootout first off is pretty exciting. This is gonna be my first one and to have all the guy working on that car and then we can translate a lot of that to our (Daytona) 500 car, too, so it will be a big test session for us. We’ll learn a lot and just have some fun.”

• There will be dueling pace cars at Daytona International Speedway this year. Chevrolet had been the official car of Daytona for as long as anyone could remember, but the financial crisis at General Motors has forced the company to scale back its track sponsorships.

As a result, a 2010 Ford Shelby GT500 will pace Saturday’s Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200, the opening round of the 2009 ARCA/ReMax Series, as well as Thursday’s Gatorade Duels and the Feb. 14 Camping World 300, the NASCAR Nationwide Series season-opener.

Chevrolets will pace the remainder of Speedweeks, with the all-new 2010 Camaro slated to lead the Daytona 500 field to the green flag on Feb. 15.

• Kasey Kahne’s key to an improved 2009? Do better on off days. “On the bad days, we need to finish in the top 25,” Kahne said. “Last year we were in the 35s and 40s. We can’t have days like that. We need to keep working on consistency. Obviously, we want to win races. Last year, we won three. Hopefully, we can do at least that this year in the Budweiser Dodge.”
• Among the myriad small, start-up teams in the garage this weekend, the one that might be furthest along is Tommy Baldwin Racing, which garage sources said already has been to the wind tunnel twice to fine-tune the Toyota driven by Scott Riggs.