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Friday, May 4 Helton's address to Richmond media ESPN.com RICHMOND, Va. – NASCAR president Mike Helton read the following statement to the media Friday at Richmond International Raceway, following a meeting with Winston Cup drivers and team owners to answer their questions about the on-going investigation into Dale Earnahrdt's death in a crash at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 18: "On April 9 we put out a statement saying that we had brought together different professional disciplines to investigate, to understand, to experiment, to recreate, to evaluate, to research all of the things we needed to do in order to determine the best possible answers to the incident that took Dale Earnhardt from us. We stick to that. "That's what we're doing, and we're not going to have it distracted by responding to any speculations that are going on beyond this investigation. We're not going to make any speculations on anything until we know cold, hard facts and be able to deliver those to the best conclusion possible. "In the meantime there are a couple of points I would like to make out. Number one, as we stated in Rockingham there is no question in our minds that at the end of that accident that belt separated. This investigation is to find out why, when and what, if any, role it played in the accident. "One more thing I would like to clear up, in Rockingham when we made that statement I also said that we, NASCAR, discovered the belt Sunday evening. That's not the case. NASCAR discovered it, Gary Nelson discovered it, early Monday morning sometime. That's when it became apparent to us. There was a lot of activity going on Sunday evening. I misunderstood the timetable. I made a mistake when I said it and I am sorry that I did that. "The fact of the matter is that the belt was separated at the end of the accident. We believe that will come back when we're through to be able to prove that. Gary Nelson found it on Monday morning and that's when all of the wheels started to turn. "In the meantime, if you want to talk about rules and regulations, if you want to talk about the Busch (Grand National) race tonight, the Cup race tomorrow or anything coming down the pike about competition or the business of NASCAR, I will be glad to talk to you. But we are not going to go beyond what we have already stated and we're not going to take on any outside opinions or speculation as to what may or may not have happened. "We have no vendetta. We have no mastermind cover-up. It's just simply an investigation to get the facts and the figures and to find out the best possible answers to find out what happened in that accident of Feb. 18. "Thanks."  Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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