From 1979 to 2000, CBS Sports played a central role in shaping NASCAR into a national television sport, becoming the first network to televise the Daytona 500 live from start-to-finish while also bringing some of the sport's other major races to national television. Along the way, CBS created many racing and television memories that are still looked fondly upon by the NASCAR fans and competitors of today.
Ahead of this weekend's NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan, which was traditionally broadcast on CBS, we're opening the vault to recount the triumphant comeback story of Ernie Irvan, who took the checkered flag at Michigan -- and took back his life -- on an emotional day in 1997.
One of the great "what-ifs" in the history of NASCAR is the matter of what if the battle for the 1994 Winston Cup championship had been allowed to play out with both of its contestants. While Dale Earnhardt would win a record-tying seventh championship by 444 points at season's end, that margin of victory came without regard to his season-long title rival Ernie Irvan -- an emerging superstar whose career would become star-crossed.
After rising to prominence and winning the 1991 Daytona 500 with Morgan-McClure Motorsports, Irvan would take the next step in his career late in the 1993 season when he was hired by championship-contending team Robert Yates Racing to replace Davey Allison, who had died in a helicopter crash in July of that year, as the driver of the No. 28 Ford. Irvan won twice late in 1993, and then kept that momentum up well into 1994 .By the next August, Irvan had won three times in 1994 with 13 top fives, 15 top 10s, and five poles in 20 races, putting him just 27 points behind Earnhardt heading into Michigan.
With Earnhardt and Irvan having proven to be the class of the Winston Cup field by far, it appeared that they were destined for a close and competitive battle for the championship over the final 11 races of the season. But for Irvan, everything would change on the morning of Aug. 20.
At the end of a 10-lap practice run, Irvan blew a right front tire in Turn 2 and slammed the outside wall, suffering massive injuries including a basilar skull fracture and collapsed lungs. The quick response of the track medical staff -- namely a quick-thinking trauma doctor who performed an emergency tracheotomy that prevented Irvan from drowning in his own blood -- prevented the worst from happening. But as Irvan was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Ann Arbor, he was given only a 10% chance of surviving the night, leaving many to brace for the worst news.
But that news would never come. After surviving the first several days after the accident, Irvan's condition gradually improved, and he would eventually begin the process of rehabiliating to return to racing. By late in the 1995 season, Irvan was cleared to return to NASCAR, and he would return to the driver's seat of his No. 28 in 1996.
By itself, the 1996 season -- which saw Irvan win twice and finish 10th in points -- would have made for a successful comeback story. But it was what would happen on Father's Day weekend at Michigan the next year that would signal Irvan's ultimate triumph over the forces of death in racing.
After starting 20th in the Miller 400, Irvan would gradually work his way into the picture on what became a banner day for Ford, with Blue Oval drivers leading 187 of 200 laps. Ted Musgrave would lead much of the early portion of the race and eventually led a race-high 68 laps before giving way to Bill Elliott and Mark Martin, who spent much of the midway portion of the race trading the lead amongst each other.
By the time the race reached 40 laps to go, Irvan had inserted himself into the battle for the win with Elliott, Martin and Musgrave, taking the lead for the first time on Lap 162 just before the final round of green flag pit stops. Irvan pitted for the final time coming to 25 laps to go, with the Robert Yates crew executing a smooth two-tire stop -- enough to gain time over Elliott, whose own two-tire stop the next lap was not as quick.
However, there was still the matter of outrunning Musgrave, whose team opted to try and build as big of a lead as they could before coming to pit road for fuel only. The gambit did not work, as Irvan would take the lead back with 21 laps to go as Musgrave exited pit road and got up to speed along the access road.
The time Irvan gained over Elliott during pit stops wound up being enough to seal the deal: He would cruise to the victory, settling his score with Michigan and putting an exclamation point on his journey from death's door back to the top of NASCAR.
"About 10 laps to go I started to get tears in my eyes," Irvan told CBS Sports in Victory Lane. "It's great. Only in America, you know what I mean?"
Irvan's victory would end up being the 15th and final of his Cup career, as it came at a time where rumors had already begun to circulate that he would not return to Robert Yates' team in 1998 -- one such rumor shared on the CBS broadcast suggested that Irvan would swap rides with Sterling Marlin, with Marlin taking the seat of the No. 28 and Irvan returning to the Morgan-McClure No. 4. Irvan's ride would ultimately go to rising star Kenny Irwin Jr., with Irvan instead taking over the No. 36 Pontiac for MB2 Motorsports.
In the end, injuries would cut Irvan's career short. After missing the final three races of the 1998 season following a crash at Talladega, Irvan would again suffer a head injury at Michigan while practicing for a Busch Series race five years to the date of his near-fatal wreck. With a young family to take care of, Irvan announced his retirement two weeks later, ending a career that nevertheless saw him named one of NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023.
Notes from the Race
- Defending Cup champion Terry Labonte had entered Michigan tied for the points lead with Jeff Gordon, but this race would end up serving a major blow to his hopes of winning a second-straight Winston Cup title. Labonte blew a right front tire entering Turn 1 and crashed on Lap 60, relegating him to a 39th-place finish that dropped him to third in the standings 109 points back.
- This race featured a gutsy performance by Jeff Burton, who was injured in a three-car crash in practice that also forced Jeff Gordon and Dick Trickle to backup cars. Burton suffered deep soft tissue bruises and had Morgan Shepherd on standby as a relief driver, but Burton would end up completing all 200 laps and would almost earn a top-10 finish before running out of fuel on the final lap and finishing 14th.
- The first caution of the race came out on Lap 8 when Mike Skinner spun and backed into the wall in Turns 1 and 2 while racing Geoff Bodine for a spot in the top 10, an incident that led to Skinner expressing his displeasure with Bodine as he drove past immediately afterward. Speaking to CBS, Skinner claimed Bodine had been racing him unnecessarily hard for early in the going before finally pinching him off in the corner and getting his car sideways. Bodine would fall out of the race after completing 121 laps, suffering an engine failure.
- An 11th-place finish for Lake Speed would mark the last best finish of his Cup career, as he would earn only two more top-15 finishes and none better than 12th in the 1997 Brickyard 400. Speed, a veteran driver whose claim to fame included a lone Cup win at Darlington in 1988 and a runner-up finish in the 1985 Daytona 500, retired midway through the 1998 season due to injury.
- This race marked the Cup Series debut of Jerry Nadeau, who finished 36th in his first of five starts behind the wheel of the Richard Jackson-owned No. 1 Pontiac. Nadeau would move to the Cup Series full-time starting in 1998, and earned one career win at Atlanta in 2000 before a near-fatal crash in practice at Richmond ended his career midway through the 2003 season.
- As this race took place on Father's Day Weekend, some very young versions of today's NASCAR stars were featured prominently on the CBS Sports broadcast. CBS cameras captured images of an infant Chase Elliott and a newborn John Hunter Nemechek, both of whom now compete full-time in Cup. Also shown was Xfinity Series star Jeb Burton as a child at the playground with his father Ward, and a newborn Jesse Little -- who went on to make two career Cup starts in 2018 and now works as a NASCAR official alongside his father Chad.
1997 Miller 400 results
- #28 - Ernie Irvan
- #94 - Bill Elliott
- #6 - Mark Martin
- #16 - Ted Musgrave
- #24 - Jeff Gordon
- #88 - Dale Jarrett
- #3 - Dale Earnhardt
- #36 - Derrike Cope
- #18 - Bobby Labonte
- #30 - Johnny Benson
- #9 - Lake Speed
- #37 - Jeremy Mayfield
- #10 - Ricky Rudd
- #99 - Jeff Burton
- #23 - Jimmy Spencer
- #21 - Michael Waltrip
- #4 - Sterling Marlin
- #25 - Ricky Craven
- #11 - Brett Bodine
- #46 - Wally Dallenbach
- #27 - Rick Wilson
- #8 - Hut Stricklin
- #90 - Dick Trickle
- #17 - Darrell Waltrip
- #97 - Chad Little
- #44 - Kyle Petty
- #33 - Ken Schrader
- #96 - David Green
- #2 - Rusty Wallace
- #75 - Rick Mast
- #29 - Jeff Green
- #43 - Bobby Hamilton
- #78 - Billy Standridge
- #71 - Dave Marcis
- #22 - Ward Burton
- #1 - Jerry Nadeau
- #98 - John Andretti
- #41 - Steve Grissom
- #5 - Terry Labonte
- #7 - Geoff Bodine
- #42 - Joe Nemechek
- #31 - Mike Skinner
- #81 - Kenny Wallace
