One might think that NASCAR and the PGA Tour could not be farther apart on the sports spectrum. Not true. For one — most obviously — participants from both sports are successful drivers. More surprising is the crossover of golfers who love to drive and drivers who love golf. Will Farrell in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is the equivalent of Bill Murray in Caddyshack. But don’t be fooled. Like pro golfers, those men behind the wheel are articulate, funny and talented; the stereotype of the redneck racer jacked up on Mountain Dew doing donuts on the front lawn no longer applies. These two sports are morphing more than you think. Consider the recent addition of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup, similar to the Nextel Cup, a point system devised to reward players for varying degrees of success and a way to tie together events to create a cumulative point win based on multiple factors. With three NASCAR events taking places in the Midwest over the next two months (the USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, the Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway), we thought it was time to see what NASCAR’s finest had to say about golf.

Dale Jarrett, a three-time winner of the Daytona 500 and the 1999 NASCAR champion, received a full scholarship to the University of South Carolina — for golf. He did not attend, opting instead to enter racing. He admits that these days many of the people he plays with would find his scholarship surprising, as his golf game is not as strong as it used to be (between 38 races a year and sponsor commitments, he doesn’t get to the course as often as he’d like). Although he confesses, “If I was not a race-car driver, I would be starving somewhere on the Tour.” He sees a definite correlation between racing and golf. “In racing, it is just you and the car. In golf, it is you and your clubs. Hand-eye coordination and handling pressure are two other similarities. Standing over a three-foot putt on the last hole to win a tournament can be compared to making a pass or holding a guy off on the final lap of a race.”

Elliott Sadler admits to liking plain M&Ms over the peanut ones. With that cleared up we were free to move on to golf. Sadler started playing at age six, when his parents would drop him off at the club to play all day, walking every hole. A few years later, he started racing go-karts but continued to play golf. In high school Sadler played on the Brunswick Academy golf team.

“I can hit it a mile, my mid-iron game is pretty good, but my short game is horrendous. I cannot putt it a lick.” His favorite course is Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, and his dream foursome would be Tiger, M.J. and Charles Barkley. When asked to describe his perfect golf cart, it would be “jacked up with mud-grip tires so I can go after my right to left hooks in the woods.” So perhaps here is where the two sports diverge. However, Sadler notes one similarity between golf and racing: just as some guys play better on certain golf courses, the same is true in racing. Some drivers perform better on a 1.5-mile track than the half-mile track, just as some pro golfers perform better on a links course compared to parkland or desert courses.

Carl Edwards, who drives the Office Depot #99, is the least experienced golfer of the three racers. When asked to describe his golf game, he says, “One out of every 50 shots I feel like the greatest golfer of all times, and the other 49 I hope that nobody is watching.” Edwards sees much correlation between the two sports, noting, “Finesse, being patient and repeating the process are the attributes to a great driver, just as it is for a great golfer.” Edwards’ dream foursome? John Daly, Phil Mickelson and Dale Jarrett. Edwards’ dream golf cart would be a convertible, with a big stereo and a big cooler. “Right now the only part of my golf game I am comfortable with is driving the golf cart.”

My dream foursome? Dale, Elliott, Carl and myself racing the new Ford GT. Here’s hoping dreams do come true.