Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 21, 1994 TAG: 9408210030
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BROOKLYN, MICH. LENGTH: Medium
That was the 1994 motto for Irvan and his team, repeated time and again by his crew chief, Larry McReynolds.
But in a split-second Saturday morning, when his Ford Thunderbird slammed into the turn 2 wall at Michigan International Speedway, the big picture for Irvan turned from a fight for the 1994 Winston Cup points championship into a fight for his life.
And no one was more shocked than Mark Martin, whose relationship with Irvan had blossomed into a close friendship.
"He's fighting to hang on to everything, I guess," Martin said. "This is just . . . I can't find any words to explain it. It's just tragic. Ernie is just . . . It just doesn't happen to your best friends that much."
As Martin, looking somber and shaken, spoke outside his race hauler a couple of hours after the 8:40 a.m. crash, a cluster of reporters surrounded him. Stock cars continued to practice on the track, and the sounds of their V-8 engines reverberated through the garage.
In many ways, it didn't appear anything terrible had happened. Public relations representatives were giving tours of the garage. Crew members still were busy tuning and adjusting their cars. And the fans who had managed to wrangle garage passes for this event still were trolling for autographs.
But as Martin talked about his friend, the weather began to grow gloomy, matching the mood in the garage. And in a few minutes, the rain started to fall, as if Mother Nature was stepping in and doing what NASCAR couldn't - imposing its own suspension of the action on the track.
Martin was having a hard time comprehending that the man with whom he had spent a good part of his week was now so suddenly and gravely injured.
"We went to Boston together Tuesday and they dropped me off about 1 in the morning Wednesday, so we spent most of the day Tuesday together," Martin said. "We did a Ford appearance in Boston together, and I flew up in his plane.
"My first reaction was, `Well, so he wrecked his car. They've got another one. It might even be better than this one,' " Martin said.
"I just didn't have a clue. You are just so conditioned to not getting hurt in these things, you know what I mean? You don't think about it. It's very rare. You don't expect it, even when you see a bad crash. Your expectations are that they'll have another car out of the trailer in half an hour."
Just before the accident, Martin had been racing with Irvan. He thought, in hindsight, that perhaps one of Irvan's tires had deflated.
"He was in front of me and I'd catch him a little bit in the corners," Martin said. "And then I pulled off [the track], and two laps later this happened.
"After I found out the severity of it, I tried to get out on the race track. I borrowed a car and tried to go out there, but they wouldn't let me out there. And then I came back in here and wondered where Kim [Ernie's wife] was and went looking for her.
"It's really, really hard to be here with that going on over there [at the hospital] and not knowing. That's just a really tough thing. And there's not a lot anyone can say. Anything you can say can be wrong. And it's hard to say it's going to be OK.
"I know he took a really hard hit," Martin said. "But I've got a good feeling about him. I've got a good feeling that he's going to be OK. He's tough as nails."
For Martin and for every other driver, the challenge was to get back into a racing frame of mind. He was scheduled to compete in a Grand National race Saturday, and he did, although the start was delayed for more than four hours by the rain.
"It's harder for me to get in the mood," Martin said. "It's hard to sign autographs everywhere you step right now. It's a lot harder than it was this morning at 8."
But then the racing blood that courses through Martin's veins began to pump again.
"I've got a lot to look forward to in this Busch race, though," he said. "The car is really working good. It's working great."
And while his friend was battling to stay alive, Martin went out and did battle on the track. He dominated the Grand National race, leading 78 of the 100 laps. He was in front with less than seven laps to go. But then his tires lost their grip and he faded to third.
And when the race was over, he quickly left the track.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB