Penalties raise belt safety issue

By Mike Fish, CNNSI.com
March 22, 2001
6:03 PM EST (2303 GMT)

ATLANTA -- Beltgate lives.

First, NASCAR and its medical expert floated the theory that a failed safety restraint may have been a factor in the crash that claimed Dale Earnhardt's life.

And now, NASCAR is cracking down against two cars -- the No. 97 driven by Kurt Busch and the No. 92 of Stacy Compton -- claiming their safety belts failed inspection, because they're either older than five years or the date of manufacture wasn't visible on the belts.

The safety belts were first inspected March 9, two days before the Cracker Barrel 500 in Atlanta -- though the announcement of suspensions and fines only came Wednesday.

Officials with Melling Racing, owner of Compton's car, vigorously denounced the action by NASCAR, claiming the lap and shoulder harness system had been installed only a day earlier. They filed an immediate appeal. The Melling team cast themselves as scapegoats, contending NASCAR acted because it's under intense pressure to show it's diligent about belt inspections in the wake of the Earnhardt tragedy.

"For NASCAR to call us out on a 'technicality,' two weeks after the discovery of the alleged infraction, is just wrong,'' said Mark Melling, team owner.

"We have been a leader in the safety area long before it became the recent 'buzz' word in NASCAR. I'm deeply troubled that NASCAR chose to make an example out of us.''

Lori Halbeisen, a spokesperson for Roush Racing, said the shoulder belt in Busch's car was new, while acknowledging the lap belt was dated June of 1995 -- a violation of the rule that belts must not be used beyond five years.

The team neglected to check the date when the belt was installed in Atlanta, Halbeisen said, adding: "It's not something we did intentionally."

NASCAR levied $5,000 fines and two-race suspensions against both crew chiefs -- Matt Chambers (Roush) and Chad Knaus (Melling).

The Melling team claims representatives of Autoliv, an associate sponsor of the car and a leading automotive safety company, watched as the new restraint system was installed a day before the inspection. The date on the belts apparently was removed during the installation.

"The belts in question are brand new belts, and we can prove that,'' said Knaus, the crew chief. "As a matter of safety, we trim off excess shoulder belt material. If we did not discard the extra 16 to 24 inches of material, the unused part of the belt would hang free in the cockpit.

"We don't believe rolling up the excess material provides as safe an alternative as trimming off the excess. When we trimmed off the excess belt material, we also cut off the tag. However, the other belts from this set still had their dated tags, which indicated that this set was new.

"If NASCAR fined and suspended every crew chief because only one belt was not dated, then every crew chief would be fined and suspended because not every belt is dated . . . I'm glad that NASCAR leaves the choice of safety equipment to the teams. I want that responsibility, and I think NASCAR generally does a very good job policing the safety equipment in these cars. In this case, however, I feel like we are being made an example of.''