Salinas native Ernie Irvan took success at local tracks to NASCAR in the ’90s.

When track announcers introduced Ernie Irvan to crowds before the start of NASCAR races, his name was often preceded by “from Modesto, California.”

But Irvan – winner of 15 races in the 1990s, including the 1991 Daytona 500 – grew up in Salinas. His father, Vic, owned the former Associated Auto Wrecker in Seaside and raced cars on weekends. Irvan started driving go-karts at the age of 8. By the time he was a freshman at Salinas High School, he was California champion.

“I was just doing what [my father] was doing – that’s what I knew,” Irvan says. “I guess if he was a doctor, I’d probably be a doctor.”

At 16 Irvan switched to stock cars and continued to find success. After high school he moved east, eventually landing a NASCAR ride. On an August morning in 1994, during a Saturday practice session at Michigan International Speedway, a tire on Irvan’s 28 Havoline Ford blew as he entered turn one, launching him into the wall at 170 miles per hour. Doctors gave him just a 10 percent chance to live through the night.

But Irvan not only battled through a long recovery, he hopped back in a race car and won again, twice in 1996 and once the next year, at Michigan. Unfortunately, more accidents – including a serious one at Michigan, five years to the day after the near fatal crash – led to his retirement.

The Weekly caught up with Irvan by phone from his ranch in Florida. If he’s nagged by what ifs, he’s still puzzled by the Modesto connection.

“I don’t know how many times I told them Salinas,” he says. “I never lived in Modesto.”

Weekly: How would you sum up your career?

Irvan: Too short. But again, it was awesome to accomplish what I did – some guy from Salinas winning the Daytona 500. The Daytona 500 winner gets invited to a state dinner at the White House. Next thing I know I’m at a table with Teri Garr, the actress. She asked if I had been through a metal detector when I came in. “No.” She tells me to put some silverware in my pocket. So like a dumbass I put some silverware in my pocket. She said “I was just joking.”

Is high school different when you’re a driver?

Most people never put two and two together. All my buddies were going to football practice or baseball practice. I would work on the race car. I played tennis, a race car driver playing tennis. One of the coaches – Mr. Addison – was also a math teacher. He would always do things we would be interested in, like 10 speed bike gear ratios, how to get the RPMs the same through the gear. That stuck in my mind.

How did NASCAR happen?

I can count on one hand the number of times Dale Earnhardt had seen me race. He decided to sponsor our car. He didn’t give us money, but we had Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet on the car. It was the best thing that ever happened in my career. “Dale Earnhardt is the sponsor, that guy must be pretty good.”

Is there an “almost” that stands out?

The Brickyard 400 [1994]. Larry McReynolds [crew chief] came on the radio and says Jeff Gordon is screaming on his radio that every time you get under his car, he gets really loose. I probably should have passed him later [than I did]. A piece of aluminum on our car cut my tire down. I didn’t run over a piece of metal [on the track], I ran over our car. Man, that’s the one race that slipped away.

You were probably going to win the championship that year.

You say probably. I was going to win. I was pretty cocky in ’94. We were the dominant car. There’s a documentary that says what if Ernie Irvan wasn’t injured, how many races would he have won? Earnhardt wouldn’t have won seven championships. I told him that. If I hadn’t blown my tire [at Michigan] I may not have gotten hurt. And then to come back five years later on the same track on the exact day and get hurt again!

How much has racing changed?

It’s really different, but it’s so much the same. The griping about aerodynamics is the same. And it’s the same complaint – aero push. Well, we had aero push. Now you have engineers. When I drove the 4 car, we didn’t have engineers. We sat down at night, drank beer and tried to make the car faster. That’s how we did it. We didn’t have a computer that could run the car on a track in a simulator.