Ernie Irvan won his second race of the season and tried to lay to rest all questions about his eyesight by Bruce Newman Attention Ernie Irvan critics: With two wins and 12 top-10 finishes in his last 15 races, he has laid to rest talk that his racing days are over. Irvan's comeback is complete. He's back. (Margin of victory: .10 of a second) Ernie Irvan, Ford, 400 laps at 105.469 mph Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 400 laps Jeff Burton, Ford, 400 laps Dale Jarrett, Ford, 400 laps Terry Labonte, Chevrolet, 400 laps 2 hours, 50 minutes, 40 seconds 4 flags, 24 laps run under caution Mark Martin 122.744 mph with point totals (and points earned this weekend) 1 Terry Labonte 3,542 (160) 2 Jeff Gordon 3,538 (180) 3 Dale Jarrett 3,456 (165) 4 Dale Earnhardt 3,324 (103) 5 Mark Martin 3,185 (143) Few of the many sizable potholes on Ernie Irvan's comeback trail had come as close to swallowing him whole as had the March Winston Cup race at Richmond International Raceway. During that first weekend in Virginia, still feeling his way (blindly, some suggested) toward a victory after his near-fatal accident, Irvan crashed two cars, one in practice and one in the race—during a caution period, no less—while tangling with Wally Dallenbach. Afterward, Dallenbach and his car owner, Bud Moore, had openly questioned whether Irvan had any business being on a racetrack. Not even Irvan's July victory in New Hampshire had quelled the rumors that he was continuing to have vision problems. But during Richmond's September event, while driving in close quarters at night on a short track, Irvan held off Jeff Gordon's late charge to win the Miller 400 by less than a car length. After the race he was feeling enough like the Ernie of old to bristle when the subject of his eyesight was brought up. "I don't have any problems with my vision," he said. Following his Richmond win, the 14th win of his career, Irvan seemed to want only to be treated normally again. "It's still good that people remember what we went through and what we came back from," he said, "but we're thriving on." That coined phrase sounded as if it were a combination of driving and thrilled, which Irvan clearly was. The night lights and tight turns of Richmond offered spectators a masterpiece of paint-to-paint racing. photograph by Jim Gund He felt so much in control early in the race that when his crew chief asked him on the radio how his car was handling, Irvan, who qualified 16th, replied, "I can make it do anything." But on Lap 46 his Thunderbird sputtered briefly and dropped nearly to the back of the field. "I started flipping switches," he said of his attempt to restart the car. "I don't know which one it was, but it started running again." Having found the correct switch for the backup ignition that all Winston Cup cars have, Irvan battled his way to the front, finally passing Gordon on Lap 301. Irvan (28) beat Gordon to the finish—and got to eyeball the press—by avoiding dustups like the one between John Andretti (98) and Chad Little (29). photograph by Ernie Masche/CIA Since mid-May, Irvan had finished out of the top 10 only three times in 14 races and had risen from 19th to seventh in the standings. Anybody could see that Irvan, clearly, was the driver of old.