The Better He Feels The Worse It Is For Irvan To Sit Out

HAMPTON, Ga. - With a twinkle in his good eye, the one not covered by a dashing black patch, Ernie Irvan leaned back against a chair in his team transporter.

It has been more than three months since Irvan's near-fatal wreck Aug. 19 at Michigan International Speedway. It won't be many more months than that, Irvan said, before he resumes the only career he has known.

"Hey, it all comes down to the fact that no state law says you have to have both eyes to drive," said Irvan.

To Irvan, 35, the only good question surrounding his return to racing is whether it will be a one- or both-eyed effort. Though his recovery from severe head injuries has been remarkable, whether his patched left eye ever will regain full function remains in doubt.

Irvan has sight in the eye, but its muscles are essentially frozen. Doctors told Irvan the condition usually - but not always - corrects itself within six months to one year.

Vision in Irvan's right eye is 20-40, he said, "and that's why I wear the glasses now. When I had both eyes, I didn't really wear glasses because it was a deal where I could or couldn't.

"The right eye is all moving and everything like it's supposed to, and it wasn't at first. The doctors are real pleased with that."

A visit with doctors at Duke University renewed Irvan's encouragement.

"They think (the left eye) is starting to move, but they're going to check with other doctors," he said. "It's starting to heal, and they pretty much told me it's a matter of time."

Irvan's wreck also wrecked his strongest run at a Winston Cup title. He had been either first or second in points since finishing second in the year's first event, the Daytona 500 in February.

In Irvan's absence, his name has remained on the Robert Yates-owned Ford Thunderbird. But the car has hardly performed as well for substitute Kenny Wallace, who averaged a 15th-place finish in nine starts.

With each week, standing around a garage area and just talking racing gets tougher. He began attending events again in early October.

"It's getting worse," Irvan said. "The better I start feeling and just the more I'm able to do, I mean, it gets worse and worse. Plus, I don't really have a doctor's release yet, so there are still some more things that have to mend. That's the thing - no need to take a chance now."

But Irvan did do a few laps one night this week at an indoor go-kart track in the Charlotte area.

"And nobody outrun me, so . . . by February, for sure, I'll have a doctor's release on everything, and then we'll just have to play it be ear."

All who should know about such things insist Irvan was saved by the swift response of the medical team at Roger Penske-owned MIS, led by track co-medical director John Maino, the first doctor to treat Irvan early that Saturday morning.

"No doubt," Irvan said, "and that's the thing about MIS: They had the proper people, the proper everything. And Roger Penske, he's a professional type of man, so it shouldn't surprise anybody that he has the most professional medical people possible there.

"That's the way he is, and we take that for granted so much. I didn't even know what kind of people they had there, because I never really paid attention to it.

"I was just real fortunate that it was Dr. Maino there, and he made all the right decisions. I'm just so grateful. We're in the process of trying to send things out to all the people that helped, hoping we can find a good enough way to say thanks. But there is none."

Irvan was visited twice by Maino in the weeks after the wreck, but recalls nothing from it or his first 20 days of recovery. Meeting Maino before TV cameras might work though, he said.

"I mean, what better `Rescue 911' episode than the one we could have right there, man?" Irvan asked.

The biggest fear of a professional driver, it seems, is not losing his life in a wreck. It's being forgotten after one.

"Yeah, that's definitely there for me," Irvan said. "And there probably wouldn't be so much if I hadn't been in a good hunt for the championship this year.

"I mean, now everybody wants to talk to me again. But pretty soon, it's going to be, `Oh, yeah, hey, Ernie - how ya doing?' Hopefully, I'll be able to get back racing again and accomplish a few more things. It's just that you get so used to it, it's almost like being told you can't drink water. Then the first thing you want is a big glass of it."

Last week, Yates signed Dale Jarrett, winner of last year's Daytona 500, to drive the No. 28 car next season, a deal thought to assure Jarrett of a year-long ride.

"As far as I know, yeah, they told him that he'd run all year," Irvan said. "It's a deal where I may be able to be back at Charlotte (in May), or maybe at Michigan (in June). We don't know."