NASCAR offers a unique bond between fans, drivers (cont'd)

The fit freak is not the only driver in the garage to go out of his way for a fan. After he won the Cup race at Michigan International Speedway this season, the No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing driver gave his fire suit to a young boy with a disability who was waiting for his autograph.

The driver signed across the fire suit's chest: "Dakota, you're the man. Carl Edwards 2007 MIS Winner" and told the boy from Ohio not to sell the suit even though it was worth about $5,000.

For Edwards, he realizes the loyal fan base affords him the opportunity to live out his dream on the racetrack.

"People spend a lot of money and work hard to come to our races and they pay our salaries," he said. "For that simple reason, I do what I can to give back to the fans."

As does J.J. Yeley

"I try not to ever walk away from an autograph if I can help it," said Yeley, driver at Joe Gibbs Racing. "Our fans are some of the most passionate out there and most have been here all day and all week spending their hard-earned money so they can watch us race."

Passionate can only begin to describe the Matt Kenseth fan at Watkins Glen International who ran out to the track (Jimmy Florian style) during a red flag to get an autograph from past Cup champion.

"I leaned up a little bit and saw a shirtless guy leaning in my window and I heard him say, 'Hey.' So, I said, 'Hey buddy.' I told him that I was a little busy at the moment, then the safety car started coming up and he ran away," Kenseth said.

At the Roush Fenway shop Monday morning, team officials tried to track down the fan to send him an autographed item because Kenseth said, "I kind of feel bad that I didn't sign his hat ... I've got a feeling he's going to be in a lot of trouble."

But as NASCAR and the phenomenon grows, that personal connection between fan and driver, some feel, is waning. Today, varying tempered passes, hot or cold, tell you when to come and go.

Dori Blades, 45, of Milton, Del., is a longtime NASCAR fan that said 10 years ago fans had even greater access than they do today. She said the fencing around their motorhome lot didn't exist, there was nothing separating the drivers' world and that of the infield.

"You'd be walking by and see Dale [Earnhardt] and he'd start talking to you and say, "Hey, sit down and have a beer with me.' You could walk right up to Dale," Blades recalled.

In fact, the Intimidator himself made a lasting impression on her and her family when one year at Dover International Speedway, Earnhardt gave Blades' father-in-law, who has since passed, the jacket off his own back.

Blades said he merely commented that he liked the jacket and in the next moment, Charlie Melvin was wearing Earnhardt's jacket home -- a jacket that has since been enshrined and treated as a family heirloom to be passed down generation after generation.

Since her encounter with Earnhardt, Blades said she has met Kenseth, Mike Skinner and Jimmie Johnson, but said it has taken her seven years to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. up close.

The jet-setting lifestyle of a driver, at times, requires them to be in two places at once.

As more Fortune 500 companies enter NASCAR and the sport's television presence increases, little downtime for drivers is left to shoot the breeze.

On race weekends and sometimes Monday through Thursday, drivers attend public appearances, autograph signings, media interviews, charitable functions and sponsorship obligations, on top of their actual "job," which is to practice, qualify and race the car.

That said, NASCAR still puts a premium on fan time so drivers keep that in the back of their minds always, said Kerry Tharp, NASCAR spokesman. Tharp said the sport's founding family set out to make NASCAR the most fan-friendly sport out there.

Yeley is doing his part to keep it that way, as he too was once a fan himself.

"I'm grateful that I get to do what I love for a living," he said. "You try not to lose sight of the fact that the fans are a big reason why we are able to keeping doing what we love."