NASCAR disagrees with seat belt claim

April 29, 2001
8:24 PM EDT (0024 GMT)

NASCAR officials disagreed with a report in Sunday's Orlando Sentinel quoting a rescue worker who said Dale Earnhardt's seatbelt was intact after his fatal Daytona 500 crash in February.

Dale Earnhardt was killed on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

According to news reports, Winston Cup director Gary Nelson disagreed with an Orange County (Fla.) firefighter and emergency medical technician's account, in which he claimed that he had problems unbuckling Earnhardt's belt following the last-lap accident.

Nelson said to his knowledge that the only person in the No. 3 car was a female rescue worker. He said a male rescue worker was kneeling and leaning in the other window.

The rescuer in the Sentinel story said that he struggled to pull open the seat-belt buckle before finally releasing it. Previous reports have said that the belt was broken in the crash.