In the Field: Elliott Sadler

It's not often in this sport that you can indulge a couple of your passions -- those that don't involve racecars -- in the short weeks that we have out of our cars.

But this week I'm blessed to be able to do that, along with Jamie McMurray, when we serve as honorary co-chairs of the sixth annual Drive for Autism Research golf tournament that FOX Sports director Artie Kempner has organized for Thursday in Wilmington, Del., just north of Dover International Speedway.

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We're pretty excited about it, because it's at the DuPont Country Club, which is really a beautiful place; and we'll raise a couple hundred thousand dollars for autism research.

Along with Jamie and I, who are really lucky to co-host the thing, Michael Waltrip, Kasey Kahne, Ray Evernham and a bunch of other NASCAR celebrities and personalities will be there, and we've also gotten a lot of help from the NFL.

There are a lot of NFL players that will show up. We've had several Dallas Cowboys players in the past and a ton of Philadelphia Eagles players plan to be there, from what I understand.

Artie has done an amazing job with this golf tournament the last couple of years, and he deserves a lot of the credit.

Along with him, we've all done a great job of promoting it, and Jamie and I are the lucky ones who get to host it. Jamie and I are great friends, but we share a lot of common interests where autism is concerned, because we both have nieces that have autism, so we're both affected by it.

So to be able to have a golf tournament like this, which we both can be involved in, at a beautiful place like DuPont is pretty neat.

The waiting list to get a team into this thing, from what I understand, is pretty big. Artie starts with a lot of the corporate sponsors that are involved in NASCAR racing and the NFL first, through his connections with those sports, and it kind of goes from there.

The participation we get from drivers and all kinds of people in the NASCAR world probably makes this the biggest tournament of the year. All the FOX guys show up: D.W., Jeff Hammond, Larry McReynolds and Steve Byrnes -- all those guys.

Everybody that's anybody involved in sports seems to show up, and it's just a neat deal. I'm very honored to be involved in it and to be able to raise so much money for autism awareness -- because we average around $200,000-300,000 each time we do this and it's just a neat, neat deal.

It's an honor for me to be able to play in it, not to mention hosting it along with Jamie -- and we really appreciate all the guys that take a day to come and support it, because our month of May has been really busy. And we're looking at the same thing coming up in June and July.

You can't thank guys enough -- especially people in the racing world -- that will come on a day off and support a great cause, and play in a tournament for you, to help build interest and excitement; so we really want to thank all of them, for that.

But as much as we appreciate the athletes and celebrities that come out, we also appreciate the people in the public that support this. To pay a couple hundred dollars to play 18 holes with one of your favorite NFL players or NASCAR drivers is nothing -- and the best thing is all the proceeds go to a great cause.

And I'm not going to lie; it's pretty cool for me, too.

Any time NFL guys show up, I love that. I love meeting athletes from different sports. I've had the privilege of playing in the same golf tournament with Emmitt Smith, Darryl Johnston and some other Cowboys' players, like Troy Aikman.

To get to go up to people like that, who are stars and heroes in other sports, and to talk to them about any subject under the sun, for even a few minutes, is a privilege.

And we carry it out as one, and it's something you don't take for granted. It's something I cherish very much -- finding out how other guys view their sport, but also how they view our sport.

I've had chances to talk to them about what they do in their off-time, to make comparisons and also how they get ready for championship games. There are just certain questions that you ask -- and it's neat and a privilege of being a NASCAR driver, to be able to do this.

How else does a small-town boy from Emporia, Va., get to meet some of the people that I've been able to meet? I've been very fortunate, very lucky.

Just look at last weekend at Charlotte for the Coca-Cola 600. It was phenomenal all the great people I was able to meet, since I had the Fantastic Four Fantasticar paint scheme on my Dodge Dealers/UAW Charger.

The bald-headed guy that also plays on The Shield, Michael Chiklis, is one of the nicest guys I've ever met in my life. He came up, and he's bald and kind of big, stocky -- and he had on sunglasses.

And I'm thinking, on The Shield he's Billy Badass -- and he also is on the Fantastic Four. What next? But I'm telling you, he is one of the most sincere, down-to-earth, nicest guys I've ever met.

He was genuinely interested in our sport. He was at his first NASCAR race, and he was so into it -- and so was Jessica Alba.

She was just so nice and really wanted to learn about [NASCAR] and what we go through and what all our pre-race stuff was all about. They were just happy to be there, so it was really neat to meet those two people, especially.

And John Cena was there. I'm probably the biggest pro wrestling fan in the world, and I got to meet him.

And I couldn't believe it -- because I am so hooked on this show -- but the guys from Deadliest Catch were there. To me, they're movie stars.

When they showed up, I was like, "are you kidding me -- the guys from Deadliest Catch are here?" I wanted to meet them more than anyone, and I got to meet Sig Hansen, who is probably my favorite guy on the whole show.

And the guy from the Cornelia Marie was there, and I was like, "this is awesome!"

In fact, I watched the show just Tuesday morning, so to have those guys there, to be a part of our sport and to be fans of NASCAR was sweet -- just awesome.

So yeah -- I knocked a few celebrities off my list, last weekend.

But through all of that, and looking ahead to Thursday, which I really am -- Michael Jordan is still No. 1.

We've had some cool people around our sport: John Travolta, Britney Spears, the Duff sisters and Will Ferrell. I have met some really cool people that I never thought I'd get a chance to.

But I would say of all the people I have met, stars from all over, like Matthew McConaughey, who was at Daytona a couple years ago, and Ashton Kutcher -- the list goes on and on of people that have visited our sport.

But Michael Jordan, to me, took the cake. I know, I'm biased -- I'm a Tar Heel fan and he won us the national championship in 1982 and he loves to play golf. And I'm a basketball fan.

But to me, he was the biggest hero I've ever met at one of our races.

I got to meet him at the Nextel All-Star Challenge two weeks ago. I just went up to him and we talked about golf. We have a mutual friend that I went up to him and asked him about -- and we laughed about it because we all play golf together.

Well, not all together; but I went up to him and asked him if he'd played golf with Tyler lately -- and we started BS'ing about that and talking a little bit.

I told him I was a big fan and had been following him for a long time and looked forward to one time we might get a chance to play golf together.

So hopefully that day will come, one day. We'll see.

Elliott Sadler, now in his ninth full season in the Cup Series, shares weekly with NASCAR.COM readers life on the road through staff writer Dave Rodman.