Archives Page #1 Rev Speedway

Well, we just finished our last race with the No. 28 car and probably all you folks on the internet saw it. It was an awfully good race for the top-three point contenders. Jeff Gordon ended up "squeaking" it off but, hey, that's all that mattered - he won the championship.

We had a decent run until I got caught speeding twice down pit road. It was not a good thing because you can never make that up. It was more my fault than anybody's so I have to take the total blame for it. We had a really good race car. In fact, it was competitive enough to win the race, but we just couldn't make up the pit road penalties.

ERNIE IRVAN TALKS ABOUT ATLANTA

Hi, race fans. We had a really good weekend at Atlanta. We didn't qualify as well as we would have liked, but we qualified decently.

We had a great race car. It was the same car we ran at Rockingham and we knew the car would run real good. The set-up that Marc and Robert and Raymond put in it seemed to be really good. It was very good on the long runs.

It was a shame that we only finished second, but it was a lot better than the other weeks that we've had. If somebody's gonna beat you, it might as well be your teammate. All in all, we had a great weekend for Robert Yates Racing.

ERNIE IRVAN AND THE BRICKYARD

Once again, the Brickyard 400, at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, tantalized Ernie Irvan and his Texaco/Havoline Racing teammates with the lure of its riches and recognition. Once again, it disappointed.

Despite the deep distraction of having to leave his mother in critical, but stable, condition in a Concord, NC hospital last week and fly to Indianapolis to begin practice, Irvan maintained his focus. He either led or trailed only teammate Dale Jarrett as fastest at the end of every practice session.

Then, on Thursday, he guided the Texaco Thunderbird to a track record and the pole position for the Brickyard 400.

From the start on raceday, Irvan drove like a man on a mission. For the first 39 laps of the 160-lap contest, he built steadily on his lead with only Jarrett able to even keep the No. 28 in sight. On lap 22, Irvan turned the 2.5-mile quad-oval at 172.506 mph which would stand as the fastest lap of the race.

Then, as he exited the pits following his initial stop for service on lap 40, Irvan reported the hint of a problem. "The engine missed when I took off...I think it's OK now."

Unfortunately, something wasn't right and it slowed the straightaway speed of the Texaco Thunderbird for the remaining three-quarters of the event.

In the wild scramble following the race's final restart, with three laps remaining, Irvan ignored a deflating front tire and kept his foot to the floor to bring his Texaco/Havoline Ford home 10th. The finish helped move him up one position in the points to 13th, only 130 behind 10th-place Bill Elliott.

ERNIE IRVAN TALKS ABOUT THE BRICKYARD 400

Hi, race fans. Since we were here last time, we have done a lot of racing. We went to Lawrenceburg, IN on July 24th for a deal called the Race of Champions. I raced against Cale Yarbourough and Jeremy Mayfield at a dirt track there. We always have an autograph session just before these events and I got to meet a lot of really good race fans. The car I was driving broke, but we had a lot of fun racing on dirt.

Then we went to Mount Pleasant Speedway in Mount Pleasant, MI. There is an Indian reservation near there where we held an autograph session at the Indian casino. So, we got to meet a lot more fans and get in a little more racing, too. (I won that night.)

Then we went to South Boston Speedway in South Boston, VA, where we met a lot more fans and had a really great time. (There were lots of Ernie Irvan fans there, so that was extra special.) I ran second that night, but we really had a great weekend.

That all led up to the race at Indy. Sitting on the pole was very, very exciting for everybody involved. At the beginning, we led most of the race, but just couldn't run very well in traffic. The car started pushing quite a bit. But, other than that it was a pretty uneventful weekend.

I know most of you have heard that my mom (who runs my fan club) is in the hospital. She suffered complications after an ulcer erupted and is not in very good shape. We are doing everything that we can and can only hope and pray for the best. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you have offered prayers for her recovery and hope you will continue to do so. We really appreciate it.

ERNIE IRVAN TALKS ABOUT
BRISTOL, MOM AND THE FUTURE

Well, we didn't qualify so well at Bristol this weekend. We had a brand new car and just never got the thing working really good. We just seemed to struggle a lot during the whole weekend. We got spun out a couple of times and somebody's header pipe went through the grille and pretty much tore up the radiator. All in all, it was not a whole lot of fun, but that's just something that goes along with Winston Cup racing. About the only good thing was Dale Jarrett's win. He ran a really good race and I congratulate him.

There is good news about my mom. She is doing a lot better and has started to recognize people and be a little more aware of what's going on. She is going to be moved to the same rehabilitation hospital where I was a couple of years ago and she's going to have the same doctors, so we are looking for good things to come. Thanks, again for all your prayers.

I'm making progress on my contract for next year and I should be able to let everyone know something maybe even as early as the end of this week.

ERNIE IRVAN TALKS ABOUT CALIFORNIA

We didn't have a great weekend with the Texaco-Havoline Ford. Qualifying second, I pleased to be able to go out to California, without testing there, and qualifying as well as we did. It was a lot of fun. We ran really well in the race for quite a while, but we had something go wrong in the motor. We're still not sure what what went wrong becuase we haven't gotten it back yet. We felt like we were contenders, and that's all we can do is make sure that each week we are one of the "heavy hitters" who can win the race. We were really disappointed with this week's results.

I'm going to a horse show this weekend. It's great to be able to do something with Jordan and Kim. They are both going to show, and that's going to be exciting. After the show, we're going to ONA Speedway in West Virginia to do a Race of Champions. That should be lots of fun. I know Kenny Wallace, Jeremy Mayfield, and Sterling Marlin will also be there. Hopefully, a lot of race fans will be there wo watch us put on a heck of a show.

Well, fans, here's a brief summary about this past weekend at Charlotte: We would have had a fairly good weekend if the race had ended when the rains came.

We had a great car, but something just seemed to change after it rained. We don't really know what the problem was, but the car got real loose and we weren't able to finish as well as we would have liked.

We led a lot of laps. In fact, we led the most laps and thought we were going to be in contention to win the race. As it turned out, it was a 600-mile race that wound up being 500 miles and that was 200 miles too far for us.

I want to take this opportunity to tell all of you how much I appreciate all the e-mail and letters you have been sending. Obviously, we can't answer every single one personally but, hopefully, we'll be able to answer a lot of them on our next chat session. A lot of you have the same or similar questions so maybe we can answer a bunch of them "in one shot" that way.

Again, thanks for all your support. It really means a lot!

All of you who saw the Charlotte race know we didn't have a very good weekend. We took the same car we ran there last time because it did run so well. However, they've been doing some experimenting (beyond my control) and they decided they wanted to have a different front clip on that car. It just never worked. We never really got a handle on it, so it proceeded to be a very long weekend.

To top all that, the car caught on fire in the pits. (At one point, we even tried to put out the fire with gasoline - but, that didn't work either.)

We just generally had a bad weekend but, hopefully, this weekend at Talladega will be better. Hopefully, we'll be able to run competitively.

We thought we were going to have a really good weekend with the Texaco Havoline Ford. We started out really well and we qualified decently. We had a new car and it was great. We're very excited about this car.

The car was great during the race, we ran well and led a lot of laps, but we had a bad pit stop that put us back to about 12th and then ėthe driver' made a mistake and slapped the fence a little bit. Then we were just a little too cautious and decided we needed to come in because we didn't know if the tires were rubbing or not.

That got us down two laps. It was a shame because we really had a great car. But, all that's behind us and we'll just go on to Texas.

First of all, I want to thank all of you again. We really appreciate the support you have given us on-line and in the mail. All of your letters and questions are important to us. Hopefully, we will be able to answer some of your questions in these few comments about the race at Dover.

We had a pretty good weekend. We qualified 10th and led a lot of the race. However, I had a collision on pit road with my teammate, DJ, so we had to come back in and go to the back. So, basically, we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get back to the front.

Well, we got the car handling good again and did get back to the front. In fact, we took the lead and thought we were in really good shape. However, with about 25 laps to go, NASCAR had gotten some reports about somebody oiling the race track down. I got loose getting into turn three, so I went into turn one at a little less speed because I knew there might be some oil. Sure enough, I got right in the oil, spun and hit the fence. It was a real shame, too, because the Texaco Havoline Ford had been running really good all day.

That's behind us now, so we are just looking forward to going on to Pocono and we're looking forward to winning some races because we think when we start winning some, we're going to win a lot.

Well, we didn't qualify very well this past weekend; however, we did manage to finally get running up in the top 10. The car just wasn't like we wanted it to be. It was decent, but no great. We were able to salvage a ninth-place finish, so we're going to take that top-10' and go on to Martinsville where, hopefully, we'll have a better weekend.

We've won there before, and we're taking one of our really good cars, so we feel we could have a really good run at Martinsville. We didn't take a very good car to Dover and that was probably a big part of our problem last week.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM ERNIE IRVAN

July 8, 1997

While it is not my wish, I will not be driving the #28 Texaco/Havoline Thunderbird next year.

There comes a time in many relationships when the best course for the continued success of all parties is to follow separate paths. Such is the case with Robert Yates Racing and myself.

I therefore confirm that my tenure as the driver of the #28 Texaco/Havoline Thunderbird will end with the close of the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup season.

While I regret that circumstances developed which prevented the continuation of my relationship with the team, I look forward to continuing my quest for a Winston Cup Championship, and wish the Texaco/Havoline team much continued success.

The members of the Texaco/Havoline team, both at the track and in the shop, work diligently to provide me with the best possible equipment every week. My pledge to them is to continue to race as hard as possible for the remainder of the season, to secure as many victories, and as high a finish in the Winston Cup point standings as we can.

I want to thank Texaco, Ford, Raybestos, Mac Tools and especially my fans for their support, during the good times and the bad over the past four years, and hope that you will continue to support me in the future.

I will announce my plans for 1998 and beyond in the near future.

Ernie Irvan