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Ernie Irvan
After a devastating, life-threatening crash in 1994, Ernie Irvan made a heroic comeback to NASCAR Winston Cup racing. In 1999, Irvan will again be on the comeback trail.
Irvan's 1998 Winston Cup season was cut short by a grinding wreck in the Winston 500 at Talladega in October. The crash left Irvan with multiple injuries that prevented him from finishing the season in the #36 MB2 Pontiac. While the season produced no wins for Irvan, it did have its high spots -- including pole positions for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis and the Pepsi 400 at Michigan. Irvan also scored a quartet of 6th place finishes -- in the Daytona 500 and the DieHard 500 at Talladega, as well as at the aforementioned Brickyard and Pepsi 400 events. In all, Irvan scored 11 Top 10 finishes and was officially credited with 19th in the final Winston Cup point standings.
Irvan's career started racing go-karts near his native Salinas, CA at age 9. Inspired by his father, Vic, who helped him build his first car, he began racing Stock cars in 1975 at age 16, winning in just his 5th start. Three years later, Irvan captured the Stockton Speedway (CA) track championship with 15 wins in 23 races. He continued to advance his career by working his way steadily through the ARCA series and the National Dirt Racing Association before moving to North Carolina in 1983 to be closer to NASCAR Winston Cup action.
Irvan worked odd jobs to support himself after his move, including welding seats at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and loading and unloading trucks and equipment for Winston Cup racer Ken Schrader. All the while, he was racing at the Concord Motor Speedway in the Late Model Sportsman class. Ernie made his Winston Cup debut in September 1987 at Richmond, VA in a Monte Carlo sponsored by Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet and prepared by Marc Reno. After another start with Reno, Irvan made three appearances driving for longtime Winston Cup campaigner D.K. Ulrich. His performances earned him a chance to become a regular competitor in 1988, when he started 25 of the season's 29 events for Ulrich and finished a mere three points behind Ron Bouchard in the closest battle ever for NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year.
After another full season with Ulrich, during which Irvan scored four Top 10 finishes and finished 22nd in the points, Ernie started 1990 behind the wheel for Junie Donlavey. After just three races, however, Ernie got his first opportunity to drive truly competitive equipment when he filled the suddenly vacant seat in the Kodak-sponsored Oldsmobile at Morgan-McClure Motorsports. In his first outing with the team, he started 30th but charged to third by the end of the event, collecting the first Top 5 finish of his career. Able to capitalize on his hard-charging style of driving, Irvan turned the year into a breakthrough season, winning his first pole at Bristol in April and posting his first win at Bristol in August in his 79th career start. He finished the season with 17 Top 10s, including his win, and was ranked ninth in the final point standings.
Irvan put an exclamation point on his 1990 season by starting off the following year with a win in the Daytona 500, only the second victory of his career. He proved his versatility by winning again on the road course at Watkins Glen, and took a career-best fifth in the standings at season's end. Ernie remained with McClure through 1992 and most of 1993, picking up a total of seven wins and nine poles with the team before switching to Robert Yates Racing with nine races left in the season. Quickly adjusting to the Texaco Fords, he scored two more wins and finished sixth in the final points.
Ernie began his 1994 season scoring wins at Richmond, Atlanta and Sears Point. But Irvan's successful season was abruptly interrupted by a grinding crash in practice at Brooklyn, MI on August 20, which left him critically injured and fighting for his life (he was initially given a 10 percent chance of survival). Incredibly, Ernie recovered to walk on stage at the Waldorf-Astoria in December to collect the 1994 True Value Hard Charger Award for leading the most miles of competition during the season, in spite of missing the last 11 races.
Irvan defied all odds and made a triumphant return to Winston Cup racing just 14 months later at North Wilkesboro. He was immediately competitive, leading at times and finishing sixth in the race. He started two more events at Phoenix and Atlanta before the conclusion of the season, and his gallant return earned him the 1995 Arete Award for Courage in Sports, along with the Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharius Courage Award that same year.
In 1996, Irvan was back behind the wheel of the #28 Fords, his team intact and his competitive fire burning hotter than ever. He started the year on the front row at Daytona next to teammate Dale Jarrett, and competed in all 31 events, winning at New Hampshire and at Richmond, and scoring 12 Top 5s and 16 Top 10s on his way to 10th place in the final point standings. But it wasn't until the following year that his comeback would be complete. In June 1997, Ernie Irvan would return to Michigan and drive to an emotional and hugely popular victory in the Miller 400, conquering the speedway that had nearly claimed his life almost three years earlier.
In 1999, Irvan will return to the seat of the MB2 Motorsports Pontiacs with backing from giant candy maker M&M Mars.
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