Kenny grew up in
Indianapolis, Indiana and was the 3rd youngest of four children. He began racing
Quarter-midgets before he was in the second grade. He graduated from
Lawrence North High School in
1988 where he played varsity
Soccer , while continuing his career as a driver. Between 1988 and
1991 , he raced for his father in the
IMSA American Challenge stock car series, all while he was still a teenager.
Kenny then went on to race in
USAC . He began open wheel racing in
1991 . He had 7 career USAC Sprint Car Series wins, and was the series Rookie of the Year in
1993 . In
1994 he was the USAC Silver Crown Series Rookie of the Year and finished second in the
1995 USAC standings. In 1996 he was the USAC National Midget Series champ. After his successful run in USAC, many open-wheel enthusiasts began comparing him to NASCAR's
Jeff Gordon .
Irwin began his NASCAR career in the
Craftsman Truck Series . He made his debut in that series in
1996 at
Phoenix International Raceway , driving the #26
Ford F-150 for
MB Motorsports . He started and finished 32nd after an engine failure. In his second start at
Richmond International Raceway , he won the pole in the #62
Raybestos Ford and finished fifth.
He moved up to drive full-time in
1997 , driving the #98 Ford for
Liberty Racing . He had 2 wins, 7 Top 5, and 10 Top 10 finishes that season, on his way to a 10th place finish in the final point standings. He also won
Rookie Of The Year honors that season. Irwin also made his debut in the
Winston Cup Series in
1997 with
David Blair Motorsports at Richmond. He qualified on the outside pole and led for tweleve laps, finishing in eighth place. He ran three more races with Blair that season, qualifying no worse than eleventh.
He won the
1998 Rookie of the Year award in the Cup Series driving the
Robert Yates Racing #28
Texaco car, replacing
Ernie Irvan . Irwin started the 1998 season by winning the
Automobile Racing Club Of America race in Daytona in February in a car owned by Yates. During that season, he had one pole, 1 Top 5, and 4 Top 10 finishes on his way to a 28th place finish in the final points standings. In
1999 he had 2 poles, 2 Top 5 and 6 Top 10 finishes and finished 19th place finish in the final points standings.
Irwin made his
Busch Series debut in
1999 driving the #11
Rayovac Ford Taurus owned by his teammate,
Dale Jarrett , and NFL quarterback
Brett Favre . He had two fifth-place finishes in five starts, at
Texas Motor Speedway and
Dover International Speedway , respectively.
In
2000 , he moved to
Team SABCO to drive the #42
BellSouth car. He had a single Top 10 finish, 4th at
Talladega Superspeedway , in his first 17 races. He made nine starts in the Busch Series for SABCO as well, finishing ninth at Talladega.
During practice for the
New England 300 at
New Hampshire International Speedway , he slammed head on into the wall, causing his car to flip onto its roof. He died instantly. It was the exact location where
Adam Petty had died just two months before under the same circumstances.
Irwin's parents operate the
Dare To Dream Children's Camp in
New Castle, IN in Kenny's honor.
- "Everyone has been hoping to find the next Jeff Gordon, I think we found him"--owner David Blair after the season-ending race at Atlanta Motor Speedway .
