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Dale Earnhardt

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NASCAR officials say Earnhardt's lap belt failed

By Stephen Thomas, CNNSI.com
February 23, 2001
4:32 PM EST (2132 GMT)

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- It won't do much to comfort NASCAR fans over his loss, but there is at least a preliminary answer to the question of why Dale Earnhardt won't be firing up his No. 3 car Sunday afternoon in Rockingham.

When Earnhardt died in a final-lap crash in last weekend's Daytona 500, his most serious injuries, those to his chest and head, were most likely the result of equipment failure, NASCAR President Mike Helton said Friday.

"We don't know how, we don't know why and we don't know when," Helton said, "and we are not here to speculate on theories, but we do conclusively know that the left lap belt failed. All we know conclusively is that the belt was in two pieces. We have a gazillion ideas why, but right now, we won't speculate."

Helton's announcement was backed up by Gary Nelson, the Winston Cup Series director, who held up a conventional racing seat belt to demonstrate just what it was investigators say they have found.

"The lap belt that connects to the roll cage on the right, straps about at the belt buckle and then connects to the roll cage on the left failed," Nelson said. "The webbing itself failed."

The result of the belt's failure, Nelson said, was that "it appears that the major impact was forward and to the right, at which time [Earnhardt] more than likely struck the steering wheel with his chest and face."

According to Earnhardt's friend and car owner Richard Childress, who was also present Friday morning, both the car and the seat belt were virtually brand new, built last November.

The announcement would apparently put to rest the theory that Earnhardt might have survived the crash had he been wearing a HANS device, the head restraint mechanism that has yet to receive NASCAR's sanction and that Earnhardt himself eschewed, citing it as being too cumbersome.

"It would be easy to draw conclusions," Nelson said, "and take theories and run with them. But from our end, we are making sure we cover all our bases before we reach any conclusions."

"If his belts had held," said Dr. Steve Bohannon, director of emergency services at Halifax Hospital where Earnhardt was taken Sunday, "he'd have had a much better chance of survival. But in this particular and unique situation where his body was not restrained, I am not convinced that the HANS device would have helped."

Helton was adamant in his refusal to divulge just what company might have been responsible for the offending belt, citing the need to find definitive answers before reaching any conclusions. "We won't talk about the manufacturer or name names," he said.

According to Helton and Nelson, as well as officials at the belt company, last Sunday's failure was the first example of any such event in the 52-year history of NASCAR. "I've never seen it," Nelson said. "I spoke to the people who manufacture the lap belt, and they've never seen. It's the first we've seen in 52 years."

Both Helton and Nelson refused to offer any ideas whatsoever as to what could possibly cause such an event.

"If we had a definitive answer," Helton said, "we'd give it to you. We don't. This one throws a unique angle into things. Something in that harmonious cocoon that Michael Waltrip spoke of wasn't right."

Earnhardt was buried near his Kannapolis, N.C., home Wednesday.

Childress, who also fields a car for Mike Skinner, will have rookie Kevin Harvick in a second car Sunday in the Dura Lube 400.