Credit: Autostock/AP

Six Laps of Seperation: R. Rudd to S. Carell

Ricky Rudd has long been known as one of the hardest working men in NASCAR. With 875 career starts, his office has been the cockpit of a racecar for more than 30 years. Even though he announced late last season that he's stepping away a bit, don't expect him to stray too far.

Steve Carell has been a bit of a workhorse, as well. He played the lead in the smash hit The 40-Year-Old Virgin and he currently stars in the hit comedy The Office on NBC.

The pair has more in common than you might think.

1.

Rudd finished 11th in his very first Cup start, the 1975 Carolina 500 at Rockingham. Running a Ford for Champion Racing, he finished 56 laps behind winner Cale Yarborough, who led 261 of 492 laps.

2.

Yarborough won 83 times in 560 starts on the Cup circuit. The last of those came in the 1985 Miller High Life 500 at what's now known as Lowe's Motor Speedway. The winner led just 49 laps that day. The man who led the most laps -- 142 -- bowed out 80 laps early thanks to engine problems. That was Harry Gant.

3.

Gant played himself in the 1984 sequel The Cannonball Run II. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "the movie equivalent to phoning it in." This probably didn't set too well with one of Gant's co-stars in the movie, Academy Award winning actress and reincarnation believer Shirley MacLaine.

4.

MacLaine played Katharine Richelieu, who, it's said in the movie, is the inspiration behind the Mrs. Robinson character in the movie The Graduate, in the 2005 film, Rumor Has It. The role of Beau Burroughs in the film is played by Kevin Costner.

5.

Costner played Robin of Locksley in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The role of Azeem, a moor who escapes to England with Robin in the film, was played by Morgan Freeman.

6.

Freeman played the role of God in the 2003 comedy Bruce Almighty, which starred Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston. Carell played the role of Evan Baxter, Carrey's rival, in the film.