"KENNY IRWIN JR. TAKES LONG
WAY BACK HOME TO INDY"

Published, in edited form, in the Johnson County (Ind.) Daily Journal, Aug. 1, 1998 ©

         Kenny Irwin Jr. finally looks at home this week.

         Back home again in the Indiana city where both he and his racing career were born, NASCAR's newest arrival from what passes for a foreign land in those circles has finally let a relaxed smile settle into the easy chair of his youthful face and left the pressure cooker of impossible expectations at the city limits.

         "Growing up, this is where I felt like I wanted to compete," Irwin says, leaning against a wall behind the Indianapolis speedway's pit lane. "Back then it was the Indianapolis 500. As long as I can remember, we'd always come to the first round of qualifying and to practice and to as many races as we could when we weren't racing on Sunday ourselves."

         The face of the first-year Winston Cup stock car driver, part Sean Penn and part Richie Cunningham and rimmed with a hint of peach fuzz, eases into a homey smile as he recalls his first acquaintances with the Indy track. He will start in fourth place there today in his first-ever Brickyard 400.

         "Nobody has any idea how special this is for me, just being here," he says, enthusiasm revving up his smile another notch. "To actually compete in a race here, whether it's a go-kart or an Indy-car or a stock car, is very emotional for me.

         "When I got out of the car after qualifying, there was such a satisfaction for me and my family to be successful at this place. We just all started crying, because, for us, Indianapolis is everything."

         The dose of home cooking this week has been tasty for the product of Northwest High School, who joined the front-line

         Before this year, the farthest south his career had taken him was somewhere just past Louisville. Now Irwin, 28, has learned how tough the road gets when it turns south at the Mason-Dixon Line and you're driving a stock car as famous as Yates' black No. 28 Havoline Ford.

         "I felt like I knew some of the pressure coming in with the 28 car," he notes. "Granted, it's probably been more than what I thought, but I think that probably came more from a fan standpoint.

         "The fact that the 28 car has so many followers was something I probably didn't recognize right away."

         The big lesson Irwin has learned in his half-season as a Winston Cup rookie is that when you are handed a car that has won a lot of races with drivers like the late Davey Allison and then Ernie Irvan, you are expected to keep it winning. He could easily be mistaken for, well, a yuppie cable-business operator -- if it weren't for the driving suit and

         "It's every single weekend that you realize that," Irwin goes on, the smile downshifting into neutral. "You go, and

         Still, the native son with the curly, blondish hair says he has begun to find a few Kenny Irwin fans, too.

         "I think there are some here in Indy," he reports, with a boyish chuckle. "That makes it nice, getting out of the car and getting applause like I did when I qualified.

         "Now we just need to work on making that happen every weekend."

         TKhis week, and today in particular, could do wonders in accelerating Irwin's budding career as a NASCAR driver whose car currently gets more fan recognition than his own face and name. He has put himself in a good position to do that with a high finish today -- his highest so far this year has been a fifth at Atlanta.

         Irwin rolls off alongside former Hoosier and now NASCAR super-star Jeff Gordon in the second row of the Brickyard lineup.

         Irwin figures that this week, so far, has pumped new vitality into his closely examined stock-car career.

         "Qualifying well has done a lot for it, for sure," he acknowledges, the smile racing back into one corner of his mouth. "I don't think I could feel any better about how everything has gone."

         But, finally, the realities of an outsider, a stranger in a strange land, finding instant acceptance depends on more than just putting one of NASCAR's most successful cars in the race, even in the relative comfort zone of being back home again.

         "After the whole weekend's over," he says, his smile quickly straightening out again, "everybody looks at home your race went. If you end up 40th, it's kind of a bad weekend."

----------

 Copyright 1998 by Jerry Miller ©

 Color photo courtesy of NASCAR

 Return to Writings page