Six months and three days later, a group of 54 engineering and medical experts hired by the sanctioning body, said the same thing.
The $1 million investigation contradicted earlier reports that Earnhardt died of a head-whip at impact, that a head and neck restraint system likely would have saved the driver and that the broken belt had no relationship to the driver's fatal injures.
While the report stood by the original findings that a broken lap belt may have contributed to the blunt force trauma suffered by Earnhardt - a finding first reported in the driver's autopsy, it prompted the racing organization to make long range changes to its safety procedures.
Starting next year, cars on the Winston Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck series will have data recording boxes to better assist crash investigations as well as. The sanctioning body also will have used of computerized models to study crashes, and it will hire a fulltime doctor to assist local medical teams at each race track.
At the same time, NASCAR has commissioned a new study into the restraint system and other safety areas associated with the cockpit.
``While we may have fallen short at times in our communications, it's my strong belief that we have been responsible in the area of safety,'' said NASCAR president Mike Helton. ``We will continue to approach this with a firm belief that even in the sport where danger is inherent, any single death is one too many.''
The impact was so severe the friction between Earnhardt's racing suit and the seat caused portions of the seat covering to melt.
While both Raddin and Sicking both endorsed the current use and future research on head and neck restraint systems, they didn't find anything conclusive that such a device would have saved Earnhardt.
Bill Simpson, who manufactured the seatbelt inside Earnhardt's car, attended the press conference with a pair of attorneys. He refused to talk after the announcement, but his attorneys said Earnhardt was warned by Simpson repeatedly that his belts weren't installed properly. Simpson, who recently resigned from his own company, has steadfastly said his seatbelts won't break if installed and used properly.
George Pyne, a NASCAR vice president, disagreed.
``Nobody made us aware of installation issues,'' he said. ``And you really couldn't control that in Earnhardt's car.''
Earnhardt's seat belts were, according to Simpson, mounted five inches too far away from the driver's seat.
Helton said the important aspect of the exhaustive investigation is how it will guide the racing organization in the future. Although an investigation into car construction - in particular the rigidity of the front ends - and the required use of a head and neck restraint systems weren't included in Tuesday's announcement, Helton said the sanctioning body proved it was conscious of safety issues.
``Nothing we can do can bring back those that we've lost as part of our sport,'' Helton said. ``We can, however, learn from those losses and honor them in what we do moving forward.
``We are committed to accelerating the evolution of safety within this great sport through continued collaborative efforts using the best minds and the best technology we can find, whenever and wherever we can find it.''
Teresa Earnhardt, the driver's widow, issued a statement through NASCAR that read:
``My family and I appreciate NASCAR's thorough report into Dale's accident. The findings released today are based on the most comprehensive information available and appear to be consistent with previously released medical reports and our own understanding. We thank NASCAR for its good faith effort to make the facts known, and we look forward to hearing future recommendations.''
Driver Jeff Burton, who's paid for studies on a new composite seat made of carbon fiber material, said he was pleased with what's happened since the crash and what he heard on Tuesday.
``Surely today they didn't come out and say that this is what you need to do better and this is what you need to do better and this was wrong,'' he said. ``But what they have done through the investigation, as it's gone on, is they have changed some of their inspection policies and they have come around and given ideas about belt locations and different ideas on belts.
``They have been proponents of the HANS (Head and Neck Support) system or a head and neck restraint system, not necessarily the HANS system. They've been proponents of building better seats. They have over the last - really I want to say 12 months - but especially the last five months, bit by bit, given us information and made themselves available so that we can make our cars better.
``There have been a lot of changes inside of our race cars since the Daytona 500 that most people don't know about and, even though there haven't been rule changes, they've been recommendations based on the experience that they've been gathering.''
When asked if NASCAR would create a safety commission for the future, Helton said such an information-gathering group already exists.
``We have one,'' he said. ``It's 43 drivers every Sunday.''
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