Irvan Conquers His Michigan Memories

Three years ago, Ernie Irvan lay crumpled in the second turn of Michigan Speedway with damage to his brain and lungs so severe that doctors gave him less than a 10% chance to live.

Sunday, he conquered the track where he nearly lost his life.

In a high-speed duel of Ford power, Irvan came from halfway back in the pack to finish the Miller 400 with the dominant Thunderbird in one of the most competitive Winston Cup stock car races of the season. He led the last 21 laps after 11 drivers had swapped the lead 26 times.

Bill Elliott, Mark Martin and Ted Musgrave followed him across the line, giving Fords a 1-2-3-4 finish that caused anguish and cries of foul from the Chevrolet and Pontiac camps.

If it’s true--and everyone in NASCAR seems to think it is--that what works at Michigan Speedway will work at California Speedway, Sunday’s race in front of a track-record 145,000 spectators must have brought smiles to Greg Penske and Les Richter as they prepare to play host to the same group next Sunday at the new Fontana track.

“We’re going to Fontana next week with this same race car, and we know it’s going to be a phenomenal race because of what happened today,” Irvan said.

He also said he got so teary-eyed during the last few laps that it was difficult to see his way around the two-mile oval set in the picturesque Irish Hills, 70 miles west of Detroit.

“Any time you are about to win a Winston Cup race is special, but every time I went through Turn Two, I couldn’t help but think, ‘Man, this is where the wreck happened,’ ” Irvan said. “I don’t remember anything about that day. The only film I’ve seen is after the wreck happened. Nobody has ever had any film that actually showed me hitting the wall. I’m glad I don’t have that.

“God works in mysterious ways, and this win just shows that I’m blessed by God, because I’m able to do what I love to do. And I’m still able to do it. I’ve never had bad thoughts about coming back to Michigan.”

It was a weekend of memories.

“I spent some time yesterday with Dr. [Errol] Erlandson [the neurosurgeon who helped save his life at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ypsilanti, Mich.],” Irvan said. “Visiting with him and some of the other doctors here is one of the nice things about being at this race track every year.”

Irvan, who left his hometown of Salinas, Calif., in 1983 to seek his fortune in NASCAR country in North Carolina, missed 37 races before returning to the track. In his first comeback outing, a truck race in North Wilkesboro, N.C., he wore a patch over his damaged eye.

This was Irvan’s third win since, but it had been 20 races since his last one, last September at Richmond.

“I prayed those last five laps that something wouldn’t happen--not like happened here three years ago, but things that have happened late in races this year,” he said. “Like Dale Earnhardt going over my hood at Daytona, and hitting that oil slick and crashing in Dover when we were leading with about 20 laps left.”

After starting 20th, Irvan moved swiftly forward, taking sixth place by Lap 30. Ten laps later he was fourth, involved in a high-speed draft with Musgrave, Elliott, Martin and Rusty Wallace.

Wallace’s hopes for repeating his 1996 victory ended with a disastrous pit stop--or series of stops. When his crew left a ratchet in the car, he had to stop again the next lap, but he compounded that by speeding down pit lane and drawing a stop-and-go penalty.

By then, he was three laps down.

Irvan’s No. 28 took the lead for the first time on Lap 163, and he relinquished it only when he fueled for the last time. Robert Yates’ crew did such a quick job giving him enough fuel to finish and right-side tires that when the field sorted itself out, Irvan was back in front and pulling away.

“There is no doubt that last pit stop was phenomenal,” Irvan said. “It got me out in clean air. If I had gotten back there racing with Bill [Elliott] and Mark [Martin], who knows what would have happened? It made my job a lot easier to get out a little bit ahead of them.”

Irvan averaged 153.321 mph for the 400 miles and earned $93,830 for the 15th victory of his career. The pace was slowed by three caution periods for 18 laps.

Jeff Gordon, who drove a remarkable race in coming from last place to finish fifth in a Chevy Monte Carlo, was the highest finishing GM driver. He had to start from the rear because he was in a backup car after wrecking his primary car during practice Saturday morning.

“I feel really good about the effort put out by this team,” Gordon said. “To come out of here with a top-five finish really says a lot, especially after starting where we did.”

Gordon took sole possession of the Winston Cup lead after 14 events with 2,110 points, 46 more than Martin and 109 more than defending champion Terry Labonte, who started the day tied with Gordon.

Labonte finished 39th, his worst finish since July 1991, after hitting the wall when his right front tire blew out.

“It was just tough luck because it hurt us in the points, but we’ll go to California next week and try it again,” he said.

Other Chevrolet and Pontiac drivers were not so kind in their post-race comments.

“They need to give them [Fords] a little more. They’re not dominant enough,” said a sarcastic Earnhardt, whose personal-record losing streak stretched to 41 with a seventh-place finish.

Johnny Benson, who took 10th in a Pontiac, said, “I didn’t even see a Ford all day, they must have been so far ahead, I guess.”

“They gave the Fords the spoiler and they were dominant,” said Pontiac driver Kyle Petty. “Then they took it away, and they were just another race car with a bunch of crybabies driving them because they all whined about it.

“So then NASCAR gave it back to them and they’re all heroes again. I’m no more concerned about California than I am any other track, because they’re going to dominate everywhere else too.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

California, Here They Come

* WHAT: California 500, NASCAR Winston Cup Series.

* WHEN: 11 a.m., June 22.

* WHERE: California Speedway, Fontana.

* TV: Channel 7.