What if before the national anthem of the Super Bowl, you walked over to Peyton Manning, shook his hand and got the quarterback's autograph right there on the field?

Well, the chance of that actually happening for a football fan is about as likely as Mike Vanderjagt kicking for the Colts again.

However, what can happen -- if you're a NASCAR fan -- is getting a driver's autograph and possibly a photo as he prepares to slide into his racecar before the green flag drops on the Daytona 500, NASCAR's Super Bowl.

A letter to Ganassi

"Want to take a minute and share with you something really neat that happened ... something that solidifies why NASCAR is a fan-friendly sport, and why so many of us are addicted to it ..."

• Complete letter, click here

The unfettered access to some of NASCAR's most recognizable drivers is part of what makes the sport so popular. Unlike athletes in other major league sports, NASCAR drivers make it a priority to connect with and devote personal time to the fan base.

Namely, David Stremme, driver of the No. 40 Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing.

Stremme is known for becoming "mayor of the infield" so to speak at some of NASCAR's biggest races. Be it alone, or with his teammate Juan Montoya, Stremme loves to hop on his golf cart and drop in on unsuspecting NASCAR fans.

"It's what makes us different from everyone else," Stremme said. "Look at football, the players show up to the field, do their job and go home. Our sport is a weekend-long event and our fans become a part of us, a part of our personalities."

Spot on, Stremme commented that NASCAR is the only sport where fans can eat with, sleep next to and breathe the same air as their heroes for three consecutive days.

The bond that exists today between fan and driver is something that was built decades ago on the beaches of Daytona where NASCAR began.

Drivers and fans were members of the same caste system; they got their hands dirty like the drivers and came from the same working-class families as the drivers.

Part of that association and ability to identify with one another may be because NASCAR icon Junior Johnson (during the 1950s and 1960s) drove the car in his blue jeans and Jimmy Florian drove without a shirt. Apparently, it was too hot that day and there was nothing in the NASCAR rule book preventing the driver from doing so.

And what about Fontell "Fonty" Flock?

"The first time Flock won in 1947 his uniform was a white button-down shirt, Bermuda shorts and white knee socks with wing tips," said Buz McKim, historian at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

And unlike today, NASCAR drivers didn't race to live; most had full-time jobs during the week. When Buddy Baker was away from the track, the driver was in the mail room at the Daytona International Speedway. Johnny Allen, sponsored by Holly Farms poultry in 1962, drove the company's chicken truck during the week.

Eating chicken poolside is more the norm for drivers today, but Stremme doesn't allow the wealth and fame to go to his head, evident by a recent trip to the Chicagoland Speedway infield.

Brad Giffin and his wife Katie were tailgating when Stremme struck up a candid conversation with the couple who initially didn't recognize the driver out of his fire suit.

"You know, everybody says oh thanks to the fans, the fans are so important," said Giffin, 37, of Chicago. "But, Dave came out and put his money where his mouth is and made it 100 percent special."

So special, Giffin and wife wrote a letter to Stremme's team owner Chip Ganassi, raving about their experience (read letter).

"I like to do that as much as I can," Stremme said. "I like to talk to the fans, watch 'em play games in the infield and just having a good time, and hopefully they're drinking our product."

Giffin compared his NASCAR experience to past NFL experiences and said there's just no comparison.

"If you want an autograph, you have to swim through the masses and get to the fence as the players go into the stadium," Giffin said. "There's just no interaction between the players and the fans, they are always behind closed doors."

Not so, says Bryan Fletcher, tight-end for the Indianapolis Colts.

Fletcher said since the Colts have been back for training camp, some of the players have been doing "Make it Personal" tours all over Indiana twice a week. He also said during home games, players sign autographs as they leave the stadium where fans gather.

However, he does admit NASCAR drivers are much more accessible than NFL players because NFL players require focus on a broader level than drivers.

"We have so many things you need to concentrate on, so many audibles and checks. We are accountable to our teammates," he said. "It's not a situation where you have a couple of laps to warm up with. Before a game, you want your focus on the job at hand and the 10 other guys on the field."

By nature, stick and ball sports don't allow for extreme access like NASCAR, said John Olguin, who spent 15 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers heading up communications for the Major League Baseball team.

"NASCAR lends itself to drivers interacting and almost developing relationships with fans. That's far more difficult in other sports," said Olguin, who is now vice president of communications at Ganassi.

In baseball, Olguin said the locker rooms are off limits as is the field. The logistics make it impossible for fans to access the players in the dugout or clubhouse as well.

"It's not that they don't want more access, they just can't," he said. "It's not a viable option unless players go up into the stands and sign autographs. In baseball, you can't do what David [Stremme] does and walk up to a fan and say, 'Hey how's it going.'"

Chris Weiller paints a similar picture from his experience with the NBA introducing the Charlotte Bobcats franchise to the North Carolina community in 2004.

"Seeing the accessibility from the other side, you really appreciate what NASCAR has," Weiller said. "I would compare it to a fan trying to walk up to an NBA player while he's doing drills before a game. In NASCAR, it's encouraged to walk up to a driver on the way to his car."

It's agreed that all major league sports have mandatory appearances and autograph signings as part of their contracts and all leagues encourage fan connection and try to build upon what they have.

But what makes NASCAR different is that two days ago, a driver could've been working at a hardware store or a mid-level business somewhere. Drivers don't come up through the ranks shielded from fans as they are in college sports on their way to the big leagues.

"That driver walking in the garage could very well have been that fan four years earlier," Weiller added. "The culture of fan integration and appearances, the kind of hand-shaking and wooing the crowd, is much more ingrained in NASCAR than other leagues."

And perhaps physical stature has something to do with a fan's ability to connect with their respective sports figure.

The average sports fan may relate easier to Tony Stewart, who is 5-foot-9 and a tad overweight as opposed to a 7-foot, muscles bulging and veins popping Shaquille O'Neal.

Carl Edwards gives fans the best of both worlds.

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."