Ernie Irvan

Ernie Irvan is the greatest contribution to racing from the city of Salinas, California. Irvan began his career path at the age of nine, driving go-karts with a passion. By the age of 15, he was California state champ and in 1974, was a national championship runner-up in his class. The big step to driving cars came only a year later when Irvan started mixing it up with grown-ups at Stockton 99 Speedway. Victory came not just quickly, but immediately when he actually won his first race on pavement.

Irvan’s road to stock car racing fame began with a bold move to North Carolina in 1982. Eventually it would lead to his first start in NASCAR’s Cup Series in 1987. In a career that spanned 12 years, Irvan would run 313 races, garner 15 wins, posting 124 top-10 finishes with 22 poles. Irvan’s 1991 win in the Daytona 500 was his greatest achievement of his career becoming the first driver born west of the Mississippi to win the Great American Race.

Irvan’s career was cut short after a life-threatening crash at Michigan Speedway in 1994. Diagnosed with critical injuries to his brain and lungs, Irvan would survive the near tragedy to drive again in several races. Though he failed in his bid to win races and championships, Irvan has become a champion away from the racetrack as one of the nation’s leading advocates in research and prevention of closed head injuries. Irvan’s tireless efforts to save lives of potential crash victims through the use of helmets have won him the 1995 Arete Award for Courage in Sports, the 1996 Babe Didrikson Zaharias Courage award. In 2002, Irvan was voted by MSNBC as one of the Top 10 Greatest Sport Comebacks. Irvan was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.