Kenny, you are not forgotten

By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
July 16, 2001
4:48 PM EDT (2048 GMT)

COMMENTARY

Sorry, the NASCAR Winston Cup Series halfway report card penciled into this space will have to wait a week.

Dave Rodman

I know, I know -- Winston Cup racing is all event-driven. The inaugural Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday was the halfway point.

That’s got to be the explanation why dates don’t seem to mean anything.

Kenny Irwin Jr. died a year and nine days ago in the opening moments of his opening lap of practice at New Hampshire International Speedway. The anniversary of his death, July 7, passed with little notice two weekends ago at Daytona.

But as much as the return to the site of Dale Earnhardt’s demise four months before dominated everyone’s thoughts and actions -- and I know, I was another chip in the river of mass forgetfulness -- Kenny’s passing was not forgotten.

Dozens of you told me that in heart-wrenching letters. But I didn’t quite know what to make of it until I ran into an old buddy last weekend at Kentucky Speedway.

“There’s a Native American belief that someone doesn’t ever really die as long as someone carries their memory forward -- makes them a positive part of their existence,” Tim Stephens told me.

It’s really given me something to think about as Winston Cup heads back to New Hampshire this weekend.

I met Tim in 1997 when he was the team manager for Liberty Racing, Irwin’s NCTS rookie season team when I came to work for NASCAR.com.

Tim hasn’t forgotten. He communicated with Kenny Sr. before the fateful anniversary and received a box of BellSouth hats -- Irwin’s sponsor at the time of his fatal crash. In the absence of any other plan to remember the day, Tim took charge of distributing the hats to the former Liberty Racing crewmen who were scattered throughout the series.

Tim’s current crew at SealMaster Racing grabbed his heart and the thought when they asked to wear the caps as well, and a mini-tribute was born.

Some still just didn’t get it. One NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team owner reportedly ordered his crewmen to lose the caps at Kansas City.

But Kenny still went to Victory Lane with Hendrick Motorsports’ Dave Carriere, a Canadian who was a general mechanic/chassis specialist at Liberty and helped Irwin win twice as a rookie.

“I thought one of us would go,” said Stephens of the small group in the navy blue caps. But he still couldn’t disguise his bitterness at what he feels is the disappearance of Irwin from the NASCAR radar screen.

He doesn’t begrudge Dale Earnhardt his third lap moments of silence, or the remembrance decals truck teams were told to put on their vehicles at Memphis after Adam Petty’s death, even though Petty had driven in only one truck race in his career.

He worries about what will -- or won’t -- happen when the Truck Series returns to the site of Tony Roper’s fatal crash at Texas in September.

“Other than Dale, Kenny was the only one of the others who were killed that ever won a race in a major NASCAR series,” he said, “or ever won a major award in a NASCAR series -- two rookie of the year titles.”

A year ago, Stephens contacted Raybestos, Liberty’s 1997 sponsor, after a ripple of discontent went through the truck garage when nothing was done at the Loudon race, albeit the day after Irwin’s death.

Raybestos provided 500 decals and every truck at the Irwin’s hometown Indianapolis Raceway Park event had one -- the 500 decals were gone after the one-day event finished.

Stephens ordered and paid for another 500 decals himself. By the end of the season, he said he had less than a dozen left. At Kansas City, Matt Crafton’s No. 88 Fast Track Driveway Sealer Chevy had one on its B post. Stephens said he could have given away 100 more that day if he’d had them.

That’s life. Princess Diana is canonized. Bobby Phils is remembered only in his family’s prayers.

This week, as we go back to New Hampshire, we can’t grab Kenny by the shoulders over a game of eight ball and look him in the eyes and say, “Dude, keep your head up, you WILL make it.”

We can’t rest our head on his shoulder and wonder what all these maddening struggles really mean.

We can’t even simply flick beer foam at a TV screen at some corner bar in the ‘hood and snarl, “You know, he just can’t cut it.”

But make no mistake -- Kenny Irwin lives.

Your letters, and my heart and an old American legend tell me so. And I pray it never ceases to be.

NOTE: Dave Rodman is a staff writer for NASCAR.com. The opinions listed here are those solely of the writer. To provide feedback to Dave, email him at dave.rodman@turner.com.