MIDLAND, NC :: 16-year-old Jared Irvan, son of 1991 Daytona 500 Champion Ernie Irvan, is entering his sophomore season in the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) with hopes to win races after a breakout 2012 season. Irvan’s best career finish in the PASS South Super Late Model Series was a second place finish which he earned last August at South Boston.
Irvan, who will compete in the full PASS South tour with the backing of Auramist, hopes to be able to compete for the series championship in 2014.
“We’d love to go out there and win a couple races and get the championship but our realistic expectations maybe win a couple races and finish out the year without wrecking any cars and not make many enemies on the track,” Irvan said about his season expectations. “Towards the end, those races get crazy. We tested last Thursday (at Greenville-Pickens Speedway) and the car was really good. We’ve rebuilt the car completely from last year and it’s way better. I have high hopes. We ran in the top-three a couple times so I think we can get a couple wins as good as the car is.”
Irvan scored two top-five finishes and four top-10 finishes in six starts in the 2013 season after having scored two top-10 finishes in two starts in 2012. The main thing Irvan learned in 2013 was tire-management and how to take care of the car.
“If you don’t have the best car, you can still run top three if you keep your tires from getting worn out and keep your car in one piece,” Irvan stated.
Before running in PASS, Irvan competed in USAC Ford Focus Midgets where he won the USAC Ford Focus Midget Eastern Young Guns Series championship in 2011. In 2012, he won the USAC Eastern Ignite Midget Series championship. He started out in Quarter Midgets and has also raced in Legends cars at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“I ran the Summer Shootout at Charlotte last summer and the summer before that. I just ran the Ford Focus Midgets all over pretty much. We went up to Ohio a couple times just chasing that Eastern Championship as well, which we won.”
For Jared Irvan, racing was in his blood the day he was born. While he was not old enough to remember when his father race, he still inherited his father’s talent and was born to race – now with the elder Irvan mentoring him.
“It’s a huge assett that a lot of other people don’t have,” Jared said about having Ernie as a father and a mentor. “He gives me a bit of an advantage and I try to use it the best that it can be. It’s fun having him there. We always joke around at the racetrack and at the shop. He’s always saying how he’s going to jump in the car one day but right now the seat might be too small.
“He usually stays pretty quiet during the race. Our crew chief (Jamie Rouleau) was also the spotter so he was telling me what lines to take because he was Crew Chief for other teams before that. My dad, he would help me before the race but, when the race started, it was up to the Crew Chief.”
“It’s been really good,” Ernie said about watching his son race. “It’s just getting him more experience in the PASS Series. It’s a good series to be able to get experience. There are a lot of good racers in PASS. We’re just trying to get him experience and move on to bigger and better and hopefully get in to the Cup stuff.”
Ernie Irvan ran in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for 13 seasons where he scored 15 career wins. In 1994, Ernie Irvan was in position to win the NASCAR Winston Cup Championship before his season was cut short in a near-fatal crash at Michigan International Speedway in August. Irvan survived and returned to racing in 1995 at North Wilkesboro. He completed his comeback with a victory in Loudon, New Hampshire in 1996. He ultimately retired in 1999 after suffering a head injury, again at Michigan. Jared was merely an infant when Ernie stepped out of the car for the final time.
“I was a year old when he retired but he got me in to it,” Jared explained. “He built a dirt track at our house in Mooresville and we’d get out there and beat and bang. I wanted to race so we went to the local Quarter Midget track. I ran from when I was four and a half years old to when I was 13 in Quarter Midgets. We won numerous championships in that so we moved up to the Ford Focus Midgets, won two championships. We also ran the Summer Shootout. Now we’ll do Legends and Super Late Models this year.”
Now, the younger Irvan, who turned 16 earlier this month, continues his journey up the racing ladder in hopes of, one day, occupying Victory Lane after the Daytona 500 like his father before him.
The PASS South season opens up on Saturday night, March 1st with the FOX Carolina 150 at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina. Along with being a PASS South race, the race is also the first in the PASS National Championship. The FOX Carolina 150 will be available for purchase on PASS TV. Along with PASS TV streaming coverage, RACE22.com will have Live Coverage of the FOX Carolina 150.
