Sunday, February 25, 2001
Report: Earnhardt altered seat belt
Driver may have contributed to his own death
Enquirer news services
Stock car driver Dale Earnhardt altered the seat belt in his No.3 Chevy Monte Carlo during last week's Daytona 500, possibly playing a hand in his death on the final lap of the race.
NASCAR officials said Friday that Earnhardt was found with a broken seat belt after the wreck in which he was killed instantly.
But one source who saw the car after the wreck told the New York Daily News the seat belt failure was because of alterations to the safety harness ordered by Earnhardt, not because of a design flaw or failure of the mechanism.
Another source confirmed the manner in which Earnhardt had the belt installed probably caused its failure. Drivers often make equipment changes so they can be more comfortable in the cockpit.
“He just had a different thinking about the way he liked the belts,” a NASCAR source said. “Dale was so successful, he went through a lot of accidents, he had no real reason to change some of the ways he did things.”
NASCAR spokesman John Griffin called reports that Earnhardt altered his seat belt speculation but said stock car racing's governing body will continue investigating the wreck.
“In 52 years of NASCAR Winston Cup racing, this is the first one of these we've seen,” said Winston Cup director Gary Nelson. “The integrity of the restraint system was severely compromised by the webbing separating.”
Said Griffin: “We're telling our teams to take a good long look at their seat-belt situation.”
Meanwhile, Jeff Gordon won the pole position for today's Dura Lube 400 at Rockingham, N.C., Saturday.
Gordon wore Earnhardt's No.3 black-and-red hat to the post-qualifying press conference.
“I can promise you I'm not wearing this hat because I want to fill his shoes,” Gordon said. “Dale Earnhardt cannot be replaced.”
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Report: Earnhardt altered seat belt