It took more than talent and ambition to make Ernie Irvan a NASCAR Winston Cup
champion race car driver.

According to Irvan, it also took $700, three blocks of cheese and a little
luck in a Las Vegas casino.

Irvan was witty and thankful in the recollections he shared with about 600
people at The Salvation Army's ninth annual Spring Sports Luncheon on
Tuesday at Modesto Centre Plaza.

When he left the Modesto area to pursue his dream of becoming a Winston Cup
driver, Irvan said everything he owned fit into a trailer hooked to the
back of his pickup truck.

Being an eager 21-year-old at the time, Irvan and an uncle he was traveling
with stopped in Las Vegas to try to increase the $700 in Irvan's wallet.

They actually won a little money, and instead of getting greedy, wisely
left with about $1,100.

"We actually got to stop and have something to eat besides block
cheese the rest of the way," Irvan said. "I can't remember if it
was from The Salvation Army. It was good cheese, though."

Irvan is doing considerably better these days. He lives in Mooresville,
N.C., with his wife, Kim, and their daughter Jordan, 10, and son Jared, 6.
Irvan said while Jordan wants nothing to do with racing, Jared cares about
nothing but.

"He races quarter midgets," Irvan said. "He's been to two
(racing) schools. Of course, dad can't tell him nothing. Dad doesn't know
nothing.

"If somebody comes up and asks me for an autograph or something, he looks like
'Why would anyone want an autograph from dad?'"

Jared will understand when he's a little older what a big deal it is to win
the Daytona 500, as Irvan did in 1991, and how amazing his father's escape
from two near-fatal crashes were.

Many people in the audience, including former and current race car drivers,
remembered how Irvan was given a 10 percent chance of surviving after he
crashed in practice at Michigan Speedway on Aug. 20, 1994. Irvan said his
first memory after the accident came 21 days later, when he watched a race
on television and wondered what Kenny Wallace was doing driving his race
car.

"We called him Monkey Man because he used to do this monkey face for
my daughter," Irvan said. "And I thought 'Why is Monkey Man
driving my car?' That's hard to take when you wake up in the hospital and
don't know how you got there."

Irvan recovered and returned to the track in 1995. He won three of his 15
races in the next four years, until another accident made him realize the
"smartest thing" he could do was retire.

Irvan said he was grateful for the doctor and rescue team who saved his
life at Michigan that day in 1994, and that car owner Roger Penske kept a
helicopter on site long before it became standard practice. Irvan was
air-lifted to a hospital both times. Irvan recalled how Dale Earnhardt gave
him his first two Winston Cup starts, just by lending his name and paint
job to a car -- there was no money for parts or labor involved. Irvan was
challenging Earnhardt for the Winston Cup title when the first crash ended
his year.

Irvan, who lived in Manteca and Ceres during his days racing at Stockton 99
Speedway, spoke fondly of the quarter-mile oval where he won the Late Model
Sportsman championship in 1977.

"I won 15 out of 23 races that year," Irvan said proudly.

Irvan signed autographs for an hour before and after the luncheon on
programs, replica cars and T-shirts. His current project is grooming
Virginia-native Kevin Conway, a midget driver with aspirations of being a
NASCAR Nextel Cup driver. Irvan is also developing the Ernie Irvan
Race2Safety Foundation to create a better children's bicycle helmet.

"I feel really good people still remember me," Irvan said.
"There's been a lot Modesto is famous for. Hopefully I'll be one of
them."

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