Earnhardt teams to honor Lopes at Richmond By Hank Kurz Jr., The Associated Press By Scott Trigg, AP Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be joined by teammates Steve Park and Michael Waltrip in this weekend's tribute. RICHMOND, Va.  News that autopsy photographs of Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes have appeared on the Internet has prompted Dale Earnhardt Inc. to plan a tribute to the singer during Saturday night's NASCAR race. Lopes, 30, a member of the Grammy-winning R&B trio TLC, was killed in a traffic accident in Honduras on April 25. During the Pontiac 400 at Richmond International Raceway, the race cars of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Steve Park and Michael Waltrip will all have black stripe under the left headlight. Over-the-wall pit crew members also will wear stripes under their left eyes. Lopes often performed with a similar stripe under her left eye. Earnhardt Jr. was sympathetic to Lopes' family when he learned that morgue photos of the singer had appeared on the Internet. Several newspapers and a Web site wanted access to autopsy photos of Earnhardt's father last year for their own independent investigations into the death of the seven-time Winston Cup champion. "We're honoring her success and things she's been able to do in her life. And we're also honoring her family," he said. "We're kind of trying to be behind them in their time in honoring their privacy and hopefully get the message across that that kind of stuff is ridiculous." Dale Earnhardt's widow, Teresa, became involved in a long legal fight to keep the photos from being published following his death on the final lap of last year's Daytona 500. Florida's Legislature eventually passed a law making the publication of autopsy photos illegal unless a judge has ruled they can be unsealed, and Earnhardt's photos have never been made public. "We're protected in Florida, but everybody doesn't have that, and it's a shame," Earnhardt Jr. said. He added that he was a fan of TLC. "My sister and I listened to them growing up through high school," he said. "It's amazing when you wake up one day and hear news like that. You just can't believe that, just like that, somebody can be gone." Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.