THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509240162
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE, VA. LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
Ernie Irvan didn't race on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway. Neither did anyone else. It rained.
Scratch practice. Scratch qualifying. Scratch the Goody's 150 SuperTruck race. And scratch Ernie Irvan's plans for the weekend.
The trucks will race here at 10 a.m. Monday, weather permitting, but Irvan won't be in the 36-vehicle field. Because qualifying was canceled, the starting field was set by points and other provisions, including the order in which entries were received. Irvan's entry, which arrived Monday, was postmarked too late to get him into the field.
``I'm disappointed, just as disappointed as anybody can imagine,'' Irvan said after qualifying was canceled shortly after noon. ``It's a tough setback, and we've been through a lot of setbacks this last year and a month.''
Irvan said he planned to stick to his schedule and compete in both the truck race and the Winston Cup race next weekend at North Wilkesboro.
Irvan's wife, Kim, joined him in the press box Saturday.
``I feel good about him going back to racing,'' she said. ``I'm nervous, but I want him to be able to do it. He had to convince me that he was capable of racing again, and he's done that.
``When I met him, he was racing. When I married him, he was racing. I knew what I was getting into, I just didn't know the extent of it. One thing I had to realize is, I thought it couldn't happen to us. It's always someone else. But it's not.
``But if you live to be 100 years old, but you don't have any happiness or goals fulfilled, what have you got? It's sort of a relief that he's finally going to be able to do it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Ernie Irvan
by CNB