NASCAR probe

Thursday, May 3rd 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) _ Race car seat belt maker Bill Simpson came to Florida Thursday looking for an apology from NASCAR over remarks that the failure of one of his products may have caused the death of Dale Earnhardt.

Instead, he waited alone in NASCAR's lobby for 15 minutes before being told that his lawyer didn't want him to have any contact with NASCAR without legal representation.

Simpson is angry that NASCAR officials have blamed his seatbelt for Dale Earnhardt's death during the Daytona 500 in February. He's demanding an apology, saying an emergency worker on the scene has said Earnhardt's belt was intact after the crash and did not fail the driver.

Unfortunately for Simpson, his lawyer had already contacted NASCAR and said Simpson wasn't to talk to anybody unless he had legal representation.

Simpson left the building without comment to reporters.