MOTOR SPORTS : IRVAN BACK AT SCENE OF NEAR-FATAL CRASH DRIVER'S COMEBACK HAS BEEN STAGGERING.

Byline: Charlie Vincent Detroit Free Press 

The question was old; the answer was new.

Do you think about the accident at Michigan International Speedway that nearly killed you? someone asked Ernie Irvan.

``As far as thinking about it, I don't think I think about it, but how we're running, maybe I do think about it,' Irvan said Friday in Brooklyn, Mich.

That is race driver talk for: I don't want to fear the wall here, but maybe I do.

Irvan nearly died at MIS in August, 1994, and when he came to this track last summer as a spectator, he longed for the future, when that accident would be a footnote to his career.

``I want to have someone ask: `How are you running?' '' he said.

But 16 races into his comeback, that is not a very good question, either. In Friday's practice for Sunday's Miller 400, Irvan was the slowest of the 40 cars on the track; in qualifying he was 32nd, with a speed of 180.950 mph.

During practice, he was never on the track more than three minutes at a time - one warm-up lap, one lap flat out, one cool-down lap and back to the garage for more tinkering. Jack it up, look under it, tighten this, loosen that, move the other thing.

And he would go out for another three minutes. Warm up. Flat out. Cool down.

Tinker. Jack. Look. Tighten. Loosen. Move.

Vrrroooooom!

Out for another try.

``We're quite a bit off and we don't know why; maybe when they drop the flag, we'll be there,'' Irvan said hopefully.

He had just worked his way free of his early-career reputation for recklessness - a reputation that earned him the nickname Swervin' Irvan - when he met the wall in turn 2 at MIS during practice two years ago.

Odds of his survival were infinitesimal. His chances of driving again, not worth discussing. His chances of racing, almost zero.

Many auto racing deaths now are the result not of broken bones or crushed organs, but of the sudden stop, of going from 200 mph to zero in an instant, an impact that can tear the brain loose from the base of the skull.

That was the kind of accident Irvan had.

``My brain stopped faster than it can stop,'' he said Friday. ``The human body can take only so much hitting the wall, so much of an impact from stopping so quick, and that's what 90 percent of my problems were.''

Irvan had no broken arms, no broken legs, no broken ribs.

But inside his skull, there was a mess.

The first surprise was that he did not die. The second was that he got better.

He never saw the remains of the car and says now, ``It's probably better that I didn't.''

Little by little, his life came closer to being normal. But Irvan said that Thursday night, Dr. Erol Erlandson, the physician who worked with him most closely during his recovery, ``told me that I've got to be patient, that people don't realize how much trauma your mind and your brain went through.''

And though serious accidents are not something drivers often talk about, Irvan said: ``Other drivers realize they could be in the same boat, be riding along in practice on Saturday morning at Michigan International Speedway and come close to losing their lives.''

He returned to racing in October, finishing in the top 10 in two of the three races he ran.

``I was at the top of my game,'' he said.

But this season has not been as rewarding. He has a second and two fourths, but he also has a 31st, a 33rd, a 35th, a 38th, a 39th and a 42nd.

``You can look at a rundown of where Ernie Irvan has finished and maybe say Ernie Irvan isn't as good as he was,'' he acknowledged, ``but I think I drive just exactly the same, and hopefully I'm smarter.''

The only visible residue of his accident is his left eye, which still does not work perfectly. Recently, surgery raised his eyelid, which had been left with a droop. He no longer has double vision in the eye.

``It doesn't work completely to the left or the right, but it is way farther than you usually have to make your eyes move,'' he said.

Sunday, he races at MIS for the first time since his accident, and he hopes this weekend is the end of the questions.

Pole-setter: Bobby Hamilton, driving for longtime NASCAR star Richard Petty, earned the first pole of his Winston Cup career, taking the top qualifying spot for the Miller 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

G.I. Joe's 200: The two hottest drivers on the IndyCar circuit this year, one ailing, the other aggravated, led provisional qualifying for the Budweiser-G.I. Joe's 200.

Jimmy Vasser edged Michael Andretti for the provisional pole during qualifying under sunny skies at Portland International Raceway. Vasser has won four races and Andretti three, including the past two.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: With only an eye injury lingering after his devastat ing crash in 1994, Ernie Irvan, left, is set to race again at Michigan International Speedway.

Associated Press