strangest thing I have ever seen
 

I have a 98 escort, its a Figure 8 car, but I am swaping it over to an oval dirt track car. The car has only ran twice. The first time it died on the 3rd lap, no spark. we loaded it on the trailer, but when I got back to the shop, it fired up and ran great. I couldn't get it to do it again. I replaced the coil pack with a known good one. next race, I hit a good bump on the first lap, car died. This time it stayed dead. No spark, no injectors, no codes, and no check engine light with the key on.

This is where it gets really strange, when I plugged the scanner in, the check engine light came back on during start up. I try to start it, it starts and runs great. I unplug the scanner, no more spark or injector pulse. Plug the scanner in, runs again. My first thought was it was grounding thru the scanner, but I am almost sure that would fry the scanner?

anyone ever seen this before? bad ecm? bad ecm ground? I am not going to lie, I am a Chevy guy, and this car isn't converting me so far haha

If anything to me it sounds like an ECM issue as you suspect. When you connected the scanner the first time were there any codes? If so did you try to erase them, disconnect the scanner and try to start? To when the car starts with the scanner connected does the check engine light come on? If its on with the car running and the ECM not showing any codes when you connect the scanner, then I would definately say its the ECM!