Seat belts cause for concern at Talladega

A half-inch tear was found on Harmon's seat belt following an accident in which he broke his shoulder blade. This weekend the Winston Cup returns to a restrictor-plate track for the first time since Dale Earnhardt was killed at Daytona in February.

Earnhardt's seat belt failed when the NASCAR legend crashed on the last turn of the last lap of the Daytona 500, and even though a court-appointed expert said recently that seat belt failure did not cause Earnhardt's death, NASCAR has asked teams to look at Harmon's torn belt so they can learn from last week's accident.

"Right now, we are working through the Busch garage and helping all the competitors view the belt and understand what can happen in a situation that can put unwanted loads in their belt system," said John Darby, NASCAR's Busch Series director. "Then we'll travel over to the Winston Cup series so they can look at it. We're taking it at one step at a time."

Since Earnhardt's death, teams have been careful to ensure that lap belts and shoulder harnesses are mounted properly to prevent the possibility of another belt breaking.

"If awareness has been heightened it's simply because everybody is working so much harder to ensure we are doing everything we can to make the environment the way we would like it," continued Darby.

"It's an educational process between NASCAR and all of its competitors. A lot of the answers come from common sense."