NASCAR driver retracts murder claim

STATESVILLE, N.C., Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Suspended NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield has retracted his accusation that his stepmother murdered his father and apologized to her.

Mayfield issued the written apology to Lisa Mayfield Tuesday in a settlement to her slander lawsuit in North Carolina, the Charlotte Observer reported.

"I have previously made statements to the press in which I accused Lisa Mayfield of either murdering my father, Terry Mayfield, or being involved in a conspiracy to murder him," the statement reads. "Those statements were made in the heat of my emotional state at the time. I now retract those statements and apologize to Lisa for having made them."

Mayfield was suspended by NASCAR in 2009 after a positive methamphetamine test. After he sued NASCAR, the organization filed an affidavit from Lisa Mayfield about his drug use.

Jeremy Mayfield then publicly accused her of murdering his father and taking money from NASCAR for her testimony. Terry Mayfield died in 2007 of what was ruled a self-inflicted gunshot. Lisa Mayfield then sued for slander.

Jeremy Mayfield's suit against NASCAR was dismissed in May.