Methinks this lawsuit settlement is two-fold. First, you don't want a sympathetic widow going in front of a jury, especially against 2 big, bad corporations like NHRA and Goodyear that made her husband race on a bad tire against his will, which is surely how Julie's lawyers would have presented the case.
Secondly, the NHRA needed this lawsuit out of the way to move the sale to HDP ahead. Why not dump a couple of million (guesstimate) towards Julie so you can make 100 million on the back-end of the sale to HDP?
Lastly, I hope one provision of the settlement was a restraining order, mandating that Julie Russell stay away from any NHRA sanctioned track and any licensed NHRA competitor so that we may never have to see her again. You got what you wanted Julie, cold hard cash ... now go the hell away.