Irvan’s Comeback Starts Well, but His Truck Can’t Finish Job : Motor racing: Wearing an eye patch, he leads for 30 of the first 38 laps. The bigger race is today at North Wilkesboro.

Everywhere you looked along the winding, narrow back country roads of Wilkes County that lead to North Wilkesboro Speedway, the message from NASCAR fans was the same.

Signs, many scrawled on sheets, pillow cases, sides of motor homes, even windshields of pickup trucks, told the story of this weekend in the heart of stock car racing country: “Welcome Back, Ernie,” “No. 28, We’ve Missed You,” “We Love You, Ernie.”

Ernie Irvan, America’s one-eyed race driver, made his first appearance in a race since he was nearly killed in an accident 13 months ago in Michigan. He was left with a damaged left eye that wouldn’t completely heal.

As impatient off the track as he had been on it while becoming one of Winston Cup’s most aggressive and popular drivers, Irvan put a black patch over his left eye and said he was ready to go racing. Doctors and NASCAR officials gave their blessing.

Saturday, in a SuperTruck race on a quirky little half-mile track that runs downhill on the front straight and uphill on the backside, Irvan went racing with 31 other drivers.

For 65 laps, the 36-year-old Californian showed that inactivity--or impaired eyesight--hasn’t eroded his driving talents. He led 30 of the first 38 laps, ran in tight quarters with the leaders, weaving his way through traffic when the pack caught the back markers.

His Ford truck, however, wasn’t up to the job.

When the race--the Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse 150--was restarted after a planned stop at the halfway point, Irvan’s truck never left pit lane. The crew tried to change a sway bar to improve its handling, but by the time the job was finished, 15 laps had been run and Ernie decided to call it a day.

“It felt like I had two flat tires on the rear,” Irvan said. “We got kind of greedy, trying to make a major change like that. We paid for it when we couldn’t get the job done. But that didn’t discourage me as far as being back racing was concerned.”

The first lap indicated the eye patch wouldn’t be a total handicap. Irvan started on the outside of the front row after qualifying Friday at 116.135 m.p.h., alongside pole-sitter Mike Skinner.

When the green flag dropped, Irvan raced side by side for a full lap, never flinching as Skinner kept the pressure on his left side.

“When you’re racing that close, you don’t really see the other guy anyway,” Irvan said. “You can feel him there. Besides, hardly anybody can see out of the left side because of the window post and the screen. I had a little mirror installed on the left side, but it was something I’d used before at Daytona. I just felt it would give me a little help.”

When Irvan shot past Skinner in his No. 28 Ford, it set off a standing ovation from the packed grandstands. He stayed in front for 26 laps before Jack Sprague and Geoff Bodine slipped by when they came up on lapped traffic. He led again as the trio took turns swapping the lead.

Mike Bliss, a former U.S. Auto Club midget and sprint car standout, won his first SuperTruck race in a battle of Fords with Butch Miller and Geoff Bodine. Ron Hornaday Jr. of Palmdale, who was forced to start last because of a dispute over his tires, finished fifth.

But Saturday’s race was only a junior varsity game. Today, in the Tyson Holly Farms 400, Irvan will be back with the varsity, racing with Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon and the Winston Cup regulars.

One thing will be different, however, besides the eye patch. Irvan will be in No. 88, leaving No. 28 in the hands of Dale Jarrett, who has driven it all season.