IRVAN IS SWERVIN' AGAIN AT DAYTONA.

Byline: Steve Crowe Detroit Free Press 

The patch is past. The comeback is complete.

"As far as my comeback," Ernie Irvan declared the other day at Daytona International Speedway, "that's behind us."

And that's like putting a mountain range in your rearview mirror.

It's been 18 months since the Saturday morning Irvan's Ford Thunderbird crashed during practice for the Goodwrench 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

He was not expected to live. When it became apparent he would survive, it seemed equally certain that Swervin' Irvan would race no more.

But even the most optimistic Irvan supporters could not foresee where he will be Sunday: in the front row at the Daytona 500, next to pole winner Dale Earnhardt's Chevrolet.

Irvan won the berth Saturday with a qualifying lap of 189.366 mph, barely below Earnhardt's 189.510.

And he did it without the patch he wore over his left eye in his three-race NASCAR comeback late last season. Without the patch, Irvan's vision was horrible. With it, he managed a sixth-place finish at North Wilkesboro, N.C., and seventh in the season finale at Atlanta.

Instead of the patch, he now wears a pair of thick corrective lenses.

"To put it in layman's terms," said Irvan, 37, "my eye was toed in a little on the left side. I like to talk like it's racing; my eye was toed in a little bit.

"Let's say both tires are turning left on the car, and the left-front turns more than the right-front, so I have a little bit of acumen problem. I can turn about 18 or 20 degrees and hold my head straight and turn 18 or 20 degrees before I have any kind of double vision.

"You never really do that at all. Your head swings. If my head was strapped to the roll bar, I'd be in trouble, but luckily you don't do that."

Irvan said eye surgery "got 'em lined up and I don't have to wear the prisms in the lenses anymore. The left one's not as good as the right one. But when I went through the eye test here at the track, I was 20-15 on the right and 20-25 on the left.

"That's definitely good enough to see what you need to see."

Such as checkered flags, which Irvan has taken 12 times in 199 Winston Cup starts. The victories include the 1991 Daytona 500 and Daytona's July event in 1992.

Irvan shudders to think of coming back fresh this year, without last year's late-season return.

"Man, I'd hate to think about coming back cold right now," he said. "Just what we got to learn on the races we got to run - as far as everybody being a part of me running those races. Everybody worked hard and made sure that we were doing the right thing.

"Probably the biggest thing I had in my mind was that I was ready last year to run the Daytona 500. Maybe I was. Who knows? But we took our time and we were patient. We made hurdles and jumped them.

"Now when we start the Daytona 500, no matter what happens, we'll know we did everything we could - if I win, wreck or whatever."

After Irvan's dance with death, his Robert Yates-owned seat was given to Dale Jarrett, the '93 Daytona 500 winner for owner Joe Gibbs. It was hauntingly similar to Irvan's stepping into Yates' car after driver Davey Allison was killed in a July 1993 helicopter crash.

But Yates promised Irvan he would have a car to return to. After considering a shift to driver/owner this season, Jarrett agreed to become part of a two-car Yates team. With a lap of 189.330, Jarrett was third quickest in qualifying.

Last year, Jarrett - winner of Sunday's all-star Busch Clash - was widely perceived as caretaker of Irvan's car.

"I don't think it made for any problems," Jarrett said. "I couldn't imagine them working any harder than they did for me. But it was a difficult situation and they got close to Ernie and wanted him back.

"They'd had a lot of success. Who wouldn't want that back? I don't think that ever took away from the job they did for Dale Jarrett. My job was to keep them together, keep the people there so that when he did come back, that was still there. I feel like I did accomplish that.

"Nobody left; that was what we intended to do. In turn, Robert has rewarded me with the good situation I have now."

Jarrett considers himself among the many surprised at how far Irvan has climbed back. "I'm totally amazed," he said. "And I'll back that up by saying that I think we all feel comfortable being out there racing with him. I don't think anybody's hesitant.

"I'd have to say he does a lot more with the vision he has in one eye than most people do with supposedly good vision in two."

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