1991: Go get 'em, Ern

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- In this case, Ernie Irvan found it was better to be lucky and good.

Avoiding a series of late-race accidents which knocked out his primary challengers and conserving just enough fuel to make it to the finish line, Irvan survived to win the 33rd annual Daytona 500.

He credited a chat with Dale Earnhardt following an incident in Thursday's qualifying race for helping him focus on his goal.

	Ernie Irvan (shown last year at Watkins Glen) was always a threat at restrictor-plate tracks while driving for Morgan-McClure. Credit: Autostock

"We had a man-to-man talk about what could have happened," Irvan said. "I hit him hard once and he blocked me. We know we're going to race each other hard all year long, so we want to keep the lines of communication open."

Trying to shed his "Swervin' Irvan" reputation for causing crashes, Irvan was a witness rather than a perpetrator this time.

Richard Petty's spin on lap 188 allowed the leaders to bunch up, and two laps after the restart, Kyle Petty, Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip collided in a Turn 4 crash.

When the race resumed, Irvan went by Earnhardt for the lead.

"Our car was just handling better than Dale's," Irvan said. "He was having to lift in the corners because his tire were worn."

Irvan then watched from the comfort of his rear-view mirror as Earnhardt spun while racing side-by-side with Davey Allison with two laps to go.

Ernie Irvan  Irvan began his full-time career in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series in 1989 and won the first of his 15 series events just one year later. The winner of the 1991 Daytona 500, Irvan finished a career-best fifth in the series points race. Irvan retired from racing in 1999.

"The air got off of (my spoiler) in Turns 1 and 2 while I was under Davey," Earnhardt said. "I lost control of the car and spun into Davey."

That set off a chain-reaction crash that scattered the lead pack, mortally wounded the cars of Allison and Petty and allowed Irvan to literally coast home under caution.

"I wish me and Dale could have raced it out to the end," Irvan said.

Allison wished for more help.

"Nobody'd go with me," he said. "They all went with Dale and my car was strong enough to stay on the outside of him.

	Dale Earnhardt waited until 1998 to capture that elusive Daytona 500 win.

"Finally, when they did see that I could stay there and that nobody was going to go by him, everybody moved up behind me. That's when I got hit down there in the second turn."

A new rule prohibiting teams from changing tires under caution caused some confusion, but Irvan felt his team used it to their benefit, despite one stop-and-go penalty.

"It was hard to know when you were supposed to pit," Irvan said. "We talked back and forth (on the radio) to make a decision.

"The big thing was the car handled so well. When we put on four tires on the last pit stop, we could run in the draft with anybody."

Bobby Hamilton finished 10th in his first Daytona 500, while Robby Gordon was 18th and Ted Musgrave 30th.

This is one in a series of articles counting down to the 2003 Daytona 500.