Perhaps the one thing NASCAR drivers love to do more than race is hunt.

Maybe because they're virtually one and the same, but ask any driver his offseason plans and they usual entail countless hours spent somewhere in the outdoors with no cell towers but lots of good company and a reliable bird dog.

This is why Live Oak Plantation in south Georgia has become a racer's haven for many Cup Series competitors.

The plantation, sitting on 3,000 acres of fields, freshwater lakes and forests, has become a yearly trek for David Ragan and his pit crew. He and his crew fly into Adel, Ga., on Ragan's personal plane and bunk at the plantation's lodge for about a week.

Together they have found many parallels between the sport of hunting and the sport of NASCAR. Similar to a crew chief calling a race, your hunt is led by a trained guide and a constant sense of heightened awareness is required in both activities.

"I probably hunt five or six times a year," Ragan said. "Like racing, you don't know what is around the next corner. You can't predict what the game or animal is going to do. When we go quail hunting, it's cool to see how the dogs sniff out the birds and when they flush 'em out, but you can't predict where the birds are going to go so you have to be on your game."

Sounds like a Sunday afternoon at Talladega, and the competition in the field is just as fierce as the competition on the track, Ragan said.

"Most important, you try to outdo your bud next to you. You have to go about it and make good decisions and be smart, know where to shoot and how often to shoot," he said.

Last month, Ragan and his hunting partner, Scott Huffman, shot the most birds, close to 50 quail in a span of three hours.

"The bird hunting at Live Oak Plantation is what I enjoy the most," he said.

Mostly, he enjoys the plantation because it is run by a fellow racer who knows how to show the guys a good time. He pampers them as if they were away at grandmother's house for a weekend feasting on Southern delicacies -- smoked quail wrapped in honey maple bacon and peach cobbler for dessert.

The main lodge on the plantation can sleep just about an entire Cup team. Once the staff leaves for the night, the lodge is warmed by a roaring fire and everyone gathers for storytelling and card playing.

"We make you feel like it's your plantation for the time you're there," said Jim Gresham, owner of Live Oak Plantation who races throughout Georgia including the summer series at Atlanta Motor Speedway. (Continued)