THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 21, 1994 TAG: 9408210232
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BROOKLYN, MICH. LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
A tragedy gave Ernie Irvan one of the biggest breaks of his stock-car career.
After the death of Davey Allison on July 13, 1993, following a helicopter crash at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Irvan was hired by Allison's car owner, Robert Yates, to drive Allison's No. 28 Texaco Havoline Ford Thunderbird.
When he took over the car last September, Irvan was already well-established - both as a winner and as a controversial, metal-banging hard charger.
The move to Yates' car, however, boosted Irvan into the highest echelon of the Winston Cup series. It allowed him, for the first time, to compete seriously for the Winston Cup championship.
But Irvan's devastating crash in practice Saturday morning at Michigan International Speedway left him with a fractured skull and critical lung injuries. He is in a fight simply to stay alive. If he survives, his career may well be over. And if it isn't, his glorious 1994 season undoubtedly is.
And for the kindly, soft-spoken Yates and his snakebit team, it was yet another frantic rush to a hospital and yet another uncertain vigil in a waiting room.
They went through this routine in Allentown, Pa., in July 1992 after Allison's terrible crash at Pocono. They did it again last year after Allison's helicopter crash. And now they are doing it again in Michigan.
Before Saturday's crash, Irvan was leading in nearly every important statistical category except the points race, where he trailed Dale Earnhardt by 27. In 20 races, he had three victories and 15 top-10 finishes. He had led 79 times in 17 races. And he had led the most laps (1,781) and the most miles (2,419).
Irvan, born in Salinas, Calif., on Jan. 13, 1959, played tennis and football in high school and raced as a hobby. His father helped him build his first car and he drove it to the track championship in Stockton, Calif., in 1977.
In 1982, he moved to Charlotte to pursue a NASCAR career. One of his first jobs was welding new seats at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The sport of stock-car racing was growing by leaps and bounds, and Irvan would soon be a key player.
He raced and won in the Charlotte area in the 1980s and had his first Winston Cup start at Richmond on Sept. 13, 1987. In 1988 he finished second to Ken Bouchard in the rookie-of-the-year battle, but Bouchard's star soon plummeted while Irvan's took off.
His first victory, after 79 starts, came at Bristol in the night race in August 1990, while driving the Morgan-McClure Kodak Chevrolet.
In 1991 he won the Daytona 500. But he also triggered big crashes at Talladega and Pocono and earned so much enmity among his fellow drivers that he was prompted to apologize in a drivers meeting.
He toned down his act after that but kept winning and demonstrated superior driving skills on all types of tracks, especially road courses. As of Saturday, Irvan had 12 career victories and 16 pole positions.
A divorcee, Irvan married his current wife, Kim, in November 1992, and they had a daughter, Jordan Leah, on Aug. 12, 1993. The Irvans had been busy building a horse farm outside Charlotte.
Irvan's father, Vic, is also a member of his racing team.
Irvan's accident was another blow to a sport that has experienced tremendous growth offset by a seemingly endless series of catastrophes.
In 1991, veteran J.D. McDuffie was killed at Watkins Glen.
In 1992, only a few weeks after Davey Allison's Pocono crash, his younger brother, Clifford, was killed at Michigan.
In 1993, while Rusty Wallace survived crashes at Daytona and Talladega, reigning Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison were killed in aviation accidents.
And in the space of four days this past February, even as NASCAR was introducing roof flaps to prevent the tumbling crashes that Allison, Wallace, Darrell Waltrip and others had suffered, veteran Neil Bonnett and Rodney Orr were killed at Daytona as their cars hit the speedway walls. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ernie Irvan, left, chats with Geoff Bodine before the start of the
Bud at the Glen race on Aug. 14.
by CNB