From Installing Seats to the Driver’s Seat : Auto racing: Ex-welder Ernie Irvan scores lopsided victory in Mello Yello 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

When Ernie Irvan left home in Modesto about 10 years ago to try his luck at stock car racing in North Carolina, he worked as a welder installing seats at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

He lived in a trailer across the highway from the racetrack.

But his dream was to compete in NASCAR and win a Winston Cup race on the 1.5-mile super speedway where he worked. At the time, Irvan’s racing was limited to Concord Speedway, a neighborhood track where he learned the aggressive style that led to his joining the major league circuit in 1988.

Sunday, in a race uncharacteristic of Winston Cup competition, Irvan led 328 of 334 laps in the Mello Yello 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway to win one of the most lopsided races in recent stock car history.

From a moment halfway through the second turn of the first lap, when Irvan passed pole-sitter Jeff Gordon, until the finish more than three hours later, no one could run with the Texaco Havoline Ford owned by Robert Yates and driven by the ex-welder.

“There’s no such thing as an easy win, although I know it looked like that today,” Irvan said. “I dominated, I know that. It was unbelievable the way the car stuck in the corners all day long. It didn’t make any matter if the Goodyears were cold or hot.”

It was Irvan’s eighth race and his second victory in the No. 28 Ford that the late Davey Allison campaigned for Yates before he was killed in a helicopter accident last July.

Dale Earnhardt at least temporarily stemmed Rusty Wallace’s challenge for the Winston Cup points lead when he finished third--and led a lap--while Wallace finished fourth--and did not lead a lap. Wallace, who had cut more than 200 points from Earnhardt’s once seemingly insurmountable lead, trails by 82 points with three races left.

“Everything worked out pretty good for us,” Earnhardt said. “It was fender to fender again today with Rusty. He was all over me at one point off the corner. I was lucky to get around Ernie and lead a few laps. He was really hooked up today.”

Mark Martin finished second, giving Ford a one-two finish. He finished only 1.93 seconds behind, but that was only because a late caution flag bunched the leading cars for a dash to the finish line.

Although the pace was slower, because of several rules changes installed by NASCAR for this race, Irvan’s winning speed of 154.537 m.p.h. was a race record. That occurred because there were only two caution flags covering 11 laps during the 3 hour 14 minute 31 second race.

“We monitored lap speeds of the winning car and they were much slower than lap speeds here in the spring race and in last year’s Mello Yello 500,” said Gary Nelson, Winston Cup technical director, who initiated the changes. “We got the desired results, at least for this race.”

Irvan was passed only once on the track, by Earnhardt on lap 162 but three laps later Irvan swept past him and was never challenged again.

“I knew how hungry Dale was to lead a lap and get those five points, so I felt it was foolish to race with him,” Irwin said. “I thought it would be better to let him go. I figured I could get back by him, and that’s how it worked out.”

Two others, Gordon and Martin, were credited with laps led while Irvan was pitting.

Fears that the rules changes would hurt the slimmer Pontiacs proved unfounded as Kyle Petty charged from 31st to second in the first 70 laps and Wallace finished fourth after starting 21st.

Thirty-seven of the 42 starters were still running at the end. Only Todd Bodine as much as spun during the 500 miles. After Bodine got loose and rapped the outside wall, he was voted the Goody’s Headache Award for being the day’s hard-luck performer although one writer voted for the estimated 150,000 spectators who sat through the dull proceedings.