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.

Gresham started drag racing in the early 1960s and scaled back to start a family. Now he helps his grandson Max Gresham race late models and hopes to see him in a few NASCAR Camping World East Series events.

The family recently purchased Peach State Speedway and renamed it Gresham Motorsport Park. He plans to renovate the half-mile paved oval and host touring series as well as other forms of racing. Early on, the track hosted two Cup Series events in 1968 and 1969.

“

I mean, most true racers will still only talk about racing when they are out here, but to be in the laid back environment and kick back with one another is the best.

”

JIM GRESHAM

Gresham's a Saturday night racer at heart but like most drivers, loves the outdoors, as well.

"We had Ryan Newman down a year and half ago and like me, he is a fisherman. We spent time fishing and man was he competitive," Gresham recalled. "He's as serious as a heart attack. He has the same focus and desire to catch a fish as he does driving a race car."

Added Newman: "He's right, we were competitive; if it wasn't the biggest fish it was the most fish. We definitely enjoyed our time together. Jim is a great guy."

Gresham said there is no better place in the world to escape the high-paced lifestyle of racing than a cotton field or a fishing hole.

"I mean, most true racers will still only talk about racing when they are out here, but to be in the laid back environment and kick back with one another is the best," he said.

Shane Wood, Ragan's catch can man on the No. 6 car, said spending a good bit of time away from the track in a secluded environment helps you learn a lot about your driver and teammates. Any good team has to be tight-knit away from the track, he added.

Ragan agrees and said any driver will tell you "the closer you become with your team the more proud they become to be a part of it."

Spending a few days clowning around skeet shooting and poking fun at one another is the finest form of male bonding. Several hours a day walking the fields will give you a lot of insight into a person's character.

"You had to be there," Wood said with a laugh. "But seriously, you want to be able to feel good around each other wherever you are. You kind of learn how each other speak and learn their different body language. You know, on pit road you can't hear a thing. Learning how we communicate in other ways helps you in that environment.

"Yeah, there's a lot of heckling or gloating. But I'll speak for myself on this, the one thing I love more than NASCAR is hunting."

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.