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RALEIGH, N.C. - In the weeks after Dale Earnhardt died after a crash at the Daytona 500, fans sought to honor him by sending money to a charitable fund in his name.
More than three years later, most of that money, around $3-million, is sitting in a bank account.
A charity watchdog group recently questioned why, and it criticized the way the fund is being administered. But officials with the fund countered that it has taken time to plan where the donations should go.
"You don't just sit down and say, "Let's give away some money today,"' said Doug Swanson, chief operating officer for Dale Earnhardt Inc., headquarters for Earnhardt's race teams. "You have to investigate and explore very thoroughly to make sure it gets in the right hands. It takes time to do it right."
Swanson estimated $3-million was raised, with about $1-million coming from 7,000 individuals and the rest donated by companies. Most came in 2001, right after the death of the NASCAR star.
Swanson said about $110,000, all of it this year, has been donated from the fund. Those gifts included $41,000 to Ducks Unlimited, a wetlands conservation group, in March and gifts of about $20,000 each to the Salvation Army and Feed the Children. Also, about $25,000 went to American Forests, a reforestation group.
"We wanted to take our time and make the very best use of the money we could and do it in an organized way," Swanson said. "We're now well on our way."
The fund's relative inactivity drew criticism from Chicago's American Institute of Philanthropy in its April newsletter.
"People that send money expect that the money be spent within a year or two, not that it be sat on for three years," AIP president Daniel Borochoff said. "There's a lot of people that could've been helped by that money. It's unfortunate that it was just sitting in a bank account."
The driver created the Earnhardt Family Fund in 1997.
CREW CHIEFS FINED: NASCAR fined Nextel Cup crew chiefs Ted Brown, Mike Ford and Terry Wooten for rules violations at Talladega Superspeedway.
NASCAR said Brown, crew chief for Morgan Shepherd, was assessed $2,000 for allowing crew member Scott Cianci to go over the wall without a helmet during the race April 25. NASCAR said the crew chief assumes the responsibility for the actions of team members.
Ford, Dale Jarrett's crew chief, and Wooten, crew chief for Kenny Wallace, were fined $1,000 each for using unapproved underpans. Both violations were discovered during the prequalifying inspection April 23.