In the Field: Elliott Sadler (cont'd)

You want to know one of the neatest things? I didn't know that not only is he a golfer, but he's a scratch golfer. I've talked about my dream foursome including Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, so I think you can throw Jerry Rice in there if he's a scratch [handicap].

We talked about it some on Sunday, before the race -- when he was the grand marshal -- and I thanked him for being on Trackside, and for supporting NASCAR and our sport.

We got to talking about golfing and found out we both played the same course on Saturday, the Sonoma Country Club. He played it while I was practicing in the morning, and I went there after practice was over.

I was talking to him about how hard the golf course was, and how windy it was out on the golf course. Dale Jarrett and I were talking to him about it, and how he'd need to give us some strokes if we ever get out there together.

So we'll see how that works out, maybe on one of our West Coast trips, because in talking to him it's obvious he has a pretty busy schedule.

He really enjoyed himself at the track. He talked to us about how nice everyone was to him and all the great team folks he had gotten to meet.

He said it was a great experience for him -- but we told him it definitely was a great experience for us, also. To have somebody like Jerry Rice come to a NASCAR race to be the grand marshal -- that doesn't happen every week.

I'm still pinching myself because I'm a huge fan of a lot of other sports than racing, and I can remember watching him and Joe Montana make the magic they did -- and also Steve Young was second to none.

To see him come to a race and meet him in person ... and he signed a football for me, so that's a cool thing to have, as far as my collection is concerned. Proves you never get over being a kid, either, so it's all good.

To be able to meet him, shake hands and interview him -- to be able to sit there and ask him questions about football on Trackside, I mean, we all were like kids. The whole mood of that show just changed, the minute he stepped on stage.

We slipped out of the mode of having a show about racing; we all slipped to the edge of our chairs and were acting like kids. We have a production meeting on Tuesday mornings for Trackside, and Steve Byrnes said it all.

He said he had the time of his life. He got to throw a pass to Jerry Rice, and now you tell me: Other than an NFL quarterback, how many people get to do that in their lifetime?

So it was pretty neat, we definitely enjoyed it and we love seeing people like that coming in and being a part of our sport.

Having said that, I have to talk about my Evernham Motorsports team and what we were able to do last weekend at Sonoma with our Dodge Dealers/UAW Avenger.

I think we had a great weekend and I'm disappointed with the 14th-place finish, for the way we ran all weekend. My guys deserved better than that.

We just did not get the gas mileage that some of the other teams did, for whatever reason. For all the teams that had to pit and couldn't make it, I think we finished sixth or seventh out of those guys. (Continued)