DEI to sport left headlight stripe for TLC singer

ATLANTA (CNNSI.com) -- Dale Earnhardt Inc. will honor Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes this weekend during the Pontiac Excitement 400 by carrying special nose stripes on all three of the company's Winston Cup Chevrolets.

Lopes, 30, was killed instantly in a traffic accident in Honduras on April 25. Within days, morgue photos of Lopes were circulated on the Internet, striking a nerve within the Earnhardt organization.

Teresa Earnhardt, wife of seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup Champion Dale Earnhardt, was drawn into extensive courtroom battles protecting the privacy of her family and memory of her late husband following his death in February of 2001. Several news organizations and a Web site unsuccessfully tried to obtain autopsy photos of Earnhardt following his fatal accident.

"We want to express our deepest sympathy to her family, friends and fans. She was a very gifted young woman who will be greatly missed. She has a huge following here at our shop," said Steve Crisp, Director of Media Relations for the Mooresville, N.C.-based company.

"We all wanted to do something to honor her and express our feelings to her family, friends and fans. Losing a loved one is difficult beyond description. Her family should be allowed to get through their loss without additional torment, especially something as painful as autopsy or morgue photos.

"We've all been through it here at Dale Earnhardt Incorporated and we know how tormenting it can be. As an expression of our feelings, we've added stripes below the left headlight of each of our cars," Crisp added.

As a trademark, Lopes, an Atlanta native who was a member of the R&B group TLC, often performed with a single black stripe under her left eye. The DEI cars -- driven by Steve Park, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip -- will each carry a similar stripe under the left headlight. In addition, over the wall pit crew members on all three teams will wear black stripes under their left eye in Saturday night's event.