Tribute Day Takes Eerie Turn

This was not your typical Sunday on the NASCAR circuit.

CBS News correspondent Bobbi Harley reports that Winston Cup drivers began their day with a prayer for their departed comrade, Dale Earnhardt, who was killed in a crash last Sunday during the running of the Daytona 500.

Just before the drivers climbed into their cars, the huge throng gathered at North Carolina Speedway observed a moment of silence for the racing legend "to remember Dale and all the great memories he left behind," driver Darrell Waltrip said.

He then told the field that Earnhardt would want them to continue racing.

"You wonder how can we go out and race today? We do it knowing Dale would want us to," Waltrip said.

Then, just after the green flag dropped, the unthinkable happened. Another Earnhardt crash. This time, he walked away.

In a wreck frighteningly similar to the one that killed his father last week, Dale Earnhardt Jr. slammed into the wall on the first lap of the Dura Lube 400 on Sunday.

He was bruised but not seriously injured, limping away from the accident to an ambulance that took him to the track medical center.

"Somebody got into me," Earnhardt Jr. told his team over the radio. I was really ready to go racing. We'll be all right, guys."

On a rainy day filled with tributes to Dale Earnhardt, his son was tapped from behind and slammed into the wall between turns 3 and 4 shortly after a moment of silence to remember The Intimidator. The elder Earnhardt was killed when he hit the wall on the final turn of the Daytona 500 last Sunday.

In his second full season driving on the Winston Cup circuit, Earnhardt Jr. started 25th in the 43-car field. The race was delayed 1 hour, 33 minutes by rain, and later was postponed until 11 a.m. Monday because of the weather. Drivers completed 52 of 393 laps.

Incredibly, Earnhardt Jr. wrecked on the first lap of racing since his father died, stunning just about everyone watching the race.

Everyone except Dale Jr., that is.

He said he had been looking forward to racing again after the long week since his 49-year-old father was killed. It took just one lap to end those plans.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and get ready to go racing next week in Las Vegas," he said.

Meanwhile, some Winston Cup drivers still reeling from the elder Earnhardt's death are urging NASCAR officials to seek help from independent experts to improve safety.

Jeff Gordon, who on Saturday qulified first for the Dura Lube, is among those calling for outside help on safety issues.

AP

Crew members from the team's of Dale Earnhardt, Inc., bow their heads for a moment of silence Sunday.

Drivers Ricky Rudd and Todd Bodine also want a safety group, The Charlotte Observer reported.

"Drivers alone can't make things happen," Rudd said. "We need NASCAR's involvement, and they're looking at safety every day. But then (you need) some outside people and everyone needs to sit down for a brainstorming session to see if there's anything we can do."

Also, Bill Simpson, whose company manufactured a seat belt found broken in the wreckage of Earnhardt's car, demanded an independent investigation of the fatal crash at last week's Daytona 500.

Simpson said his company conducts "destructive testing" on its seat belts until they break, and that they break either at the stitching or when the nylon webbing tears horizontally.

Simpson said Earnhardt's belt tore diagonally, above the stitching.

"There has to be a reason webbing tears like that," he said. "It doesn't do it naturally."

"An independent lab can tell you what happened in about five minutes," Simpson said.

NASCAR President Mike Helton said the organization can investigate its own accidents and has no need for an outside safety group. He said NASCAR has made 50 safety changes to its cars in the past six years.

"I don't think it requires a group of drivers to tell us to heighten our effort on safety," Helton said. "I think what we might need to do is a better job of explaining to the drivers what we're doing on safety across the board. If we need to get to that constituency and make them smarter, then that's something we better do."

Earnhardt's death, perhaps the most jarring on-track fatality in American motorsports, came on the heels of last year's deaths of NASCAR drivers Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, and Tony Roper. All died of the same type of skull fractures after running into walls.

After a week of talk about safety measures, Gordon and other drivers signaled they want action, though they declined to directly criticize NASCAR.

"We need a committee, we need some people to sit down and dscuss things, try to work out the best options, take it to NASCAR and talk to them to see what could be done," Bodine said.

NASCAR, which has brought in an outside consultant to help in its internal investigation, has recently purchased a building near Hickory, N.C. that will become a safety testing center staffed by 12 people.

Helton wouldn't give the name of the company, but he called them "experts in a lot of industries, not just transportation."

The NASCAR president cautioned against any "unfounded speculation" about the reasons the seat belt broke.

"We're not hiding behind anything," he said. "We simply do not know a conclusive answer."

But some doubt whether NASCAR can lead the effort to make changes.

"NASCAR is not going to make anything mandatory," Bodine said. "It's not mandatory that I wear a fire suit or helmet. It's recommended. I could get in a car with shorts and a T-shirt if I wanted."

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