"ERNIE IRVAN ADDS BRICKYARD POLE
TO TRADING-CARD CAREER HIGHLIGHTS"

Published, in edited form, in the Johnson County (Ind.) Daily Journal, July 31, 1998 ©

         Ernie Irvan collects sports trading cards -- sort of. He has two of them.

         One is of Michael Jordan and bears the Chicago Bulls star's autograph and personal message: "Great Comeback, Ernie." The other is a mint copy, still encased in cellophane, of his own "comeback" card from 1995, the same year Jordan came back to the Bulls.

         They are on display on a plaque in Irvan's North Carolina home.

         "Michael sent me his card with the special autograph and said he wanted an autographed one of mine," Irvan says, a smile he wouldn't trade for anything filling his face, "so I sent him one, of course."

         "I really treasure those two cards," he adds, relaxing in his bright-red driving uniform at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "I was never into baseball cards, but those are really special because Jordan is one of those sports figures that I truly admire."

         He doesn't say it, but the cards on his wall at home also probably remind him of his own successful return to Winston Cup racing after a near-fatal crash at Michigan International Speedway the previous year.

         After this week, Irvan's trading card definitely will need some updating. It will at least have to note that he won the pole Thursday for the 1998 Brickyard 400, which he will lead to the green flag Saturday in his No. 36 MB2 Motorsports Pontiac.

         That trading card is due for an overhaul, anyway. No longer in the familiar black No. 28 Ford of the Robert Yates Racing

         Until Thursday, that new mix was a work in progress. Now it is worthy of a new asterisk as the pole winner of the second most prestigious race on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit.

         "The Skittles team, I think, has shown a lot of potential," says the California-born driver with the prominent black goatee and wire-rimmed glasses. "The team is working real hard, and that showed today."

         Not that Irvan, now 39 years old, has been sitting still since the 1995 "comeback" card was issued any more than Jordan has. He did win two Winston Cup races in 1996 and another, back at Michigan, in June of '97.

         But the new career highlights had pretty much stayed untouched since then as Irvan changed teams, car makes and facial hair. And his place in the finishing order, too -- a sixth at Talladega has been his best this year in a Winston Cup main event.

         But clearly he has caught up at the Brickyard, where he has come close to making an impact on his noteworthy racing achievements the three times he has raced there before.

         "I think every year I come here, I learn a little more about this place," he says, adjusting his equally bright red cap with the ubiquitous Skittles logo.

         Irvan almost won the first Brickyard event in 1994, battling eventual winner Jeff Gordon until a tire went flat five laps from the finish. He was running second to Dale Jarrett when the yellow and checkered flags brought down the curtain on the 1996 race.

         Last year, he started on the pole, but a late pit stop shuffled him back to a 17th-place finish.

         "I know a lot of people have asked me, 'Do you think the Brickyard owes you something?'" Irvan advises, with another of his trading-card-pose smiles. "Well, no, it doesn't. They pay us for what we do, and I feel like I give 100 percent every time I go out on the race track."

         If he does that again on Saturday and finally wins the Brickyard 400, Irvan may just have to make room for a third trading card in his small but very personal collection.

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 Copyright 1998 by Jerry Miller ©

 Color photo courtesy of NASCAR

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