Wrecking isn’t racing, makes for messy 63rd Daytona 500
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Brad Keselowski stomped through the smoke-filled haze and eyed the destruction from another disastrous Daytona 500. His car had been sheared when it pinballed into the wall and then back into traffic after a go-for-broke run for the win that ended with Keselowski pacing in anger.
Keselowski took two steps and heaved his helmet at the carcass of his race car.
“My body is fine but my heart is broken,” Keselowski wrote on social media. He noted that “months of studying, months of tremendous car prep” and positioning himself to make a last-lap pass was still not enough to win his first Daytona 500.
This is NASCAR’s crown jewel event, the race that pays the most money and carries the most prestige.
But after another fireball finish endangered drivers and ruined millions of dollars in race cars, it’s hard not to wonder if the carnage is worth all this effort.
It certainly was for journeyman Michael McDowell, a 100-1 underdog who slipped through the chaos for the first victory of his 13-year career. McDowell led for only a quarter of a lap at Daytona International Speedway and snapped a 357-race losing streak.
For his team, tiny Front Row Motorsports, it was just the third victory in 17 seasons.
So yes, victory validated McDowell, a well-respected racer who always may wonder what his career might have been if he’d had a shot driving topnotch equipment. But it won’t change the race-torace fortunes for Front Row, which plods along each season knowing it can’t routinely slug it out with NASCAR’s elite.
NASCAR drivers are taught to believe the Daytona 500 is the most important race in their world, but it’s hard to find a recent scenario in which “The Great American Race” was a make or break for anyone.
The 500, of course, matters to Denny Hamlin, who has won it three times but has never captured a Cup Series championship. But did the 500 do much for Trevor Bayne? He was the last driver to pull off an upset, back in 2011, and he ran just three full Cup seasons after the Daytona 500 win.
Bayne now owns and operates a pair of coffee shops in Tennessee; he ran eight Truck Series races last season.
Tony Stewart never won a Daytona 500 yet still ended his career a three-time Cup champion and first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee. Richard Childress Racing didn’t become an overnight powerhouse after Austin Dillon’s win in 2018, and Ward Burton had just two more full seasons following his 2002 victory.
So much time and energy dedicated to one single event — it is just one race out of 36 each year! The racing is completely different at almost every other track on the schedule! — and so little to show at the end.
NASCAR made it only 14 laps into the 63rd running of the race before early aggression wiped out 16 cars. The rain started minutes later and anyone who waited through a nearly six- hour delay was rewarded with mostly follow-the-leader racing until the early Monday finish.
Superspeedway strategy is one of survival. The goal is simply to be running still on the final lap, when everyone shows their cards and makes a play for the win.
Keselowski leapfrogged from 14th place to second over the closing 25 laps, then readied himself for the winning move. He stalked teammate Joey Logano down the backstretch and with a huge push from McDowell — his peers agree that McDowell was the strongest
pusher at Daytona — Keselowski ducked underneath Logano while pulling all of McDowell’s momentum with him.
Logano threw a block — some argue the defensive move was too late — and it wrecked both Team Penske cars. McDowell was able to charge through the crash scene, but eight other drivers could not.
The Daytona 500 then ended under caution because of a 10-car pileup.
Only 11 of the 40 cars made it across the finish line, yet the crowd still roared following a spectacular finish. It didn’t seem to matter that drivers admitted they weren’t truly racing for 400-plus miles.
“It’s hard to be that guy to stick your neck out,” Dillon said.
Cup champion Chase Elliott added: “Everybody was content to ride around the top until the very last second, and that’s what you saw.”
Wrecks aren’t required to ensure an entertaining race, but they are very much inevitable at
superspeedways. It has made multi-car accidents expected, maybe even embraced since the imagery almost always finds its way into promotional material.
There’s a bloodthirst for this kind of racing that can’t really be denied because if demolition derbies weren’t accepted, something would change. Be it the rules or the engine packages or even the mentality of the actual drivers, something would be adjusted if this wasn’t status quo.
This Daytona 500 wasn’t all that different from last year’s, when Ryan Newman in yet another last- lap frenzy launched into a death-defying tumble down the track.
He wasn’t seriously injured, nor was anyone this time, and that seems to be the new benchmark for grading Daytona.
Entertaining? Sure. And those clips might even make some highlight shows.
But that wasn’t good racing. It was instead a waste of time.
DEAR DR. ROACH: Are people with autism spectrum disorder normal functioning? I’m thinking of “Rain Man,” and I don’t know how to behave around a friend who has this diagnosis. -- R. S.
ANSWER: Autism and related disorders are much more commonly diagnosed now compared with years ago, probably due mostly to better recognition of the condition -- and the movie “Rain Man” has had something to do with that. Although the portrayal of the autistic man in “Rain Man” accurately captured some typical features of autism, this was a Hollywood script and a skilled actor, not a person with autism. Very few people with autism have savant abilities, such as amazing memories or calculating abilities, for one.
More importantly, people with autism are indeed on a spectrum. By definition, people with autism have deficits in language, difficulty with social interaction and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. A subtype exists with no language difficulties. This is often still called Asperger’s syndrome, despite the new definition which does not specifically name it. As a consequence, people with autism spectrum disorder do not always follow typical social interactions. This can make people uncertain how to behave. Even people who have extensive experience with a family member with autism may feel at a loss when meeting a new person with autism whose “normal” behaviors are completely different.
Likewise, the person with autism may struggle to meet societal expectations when interacting with a new person. You very likely have friends who are diagnosed ( or could be so) as autistic who you weren’t aware of, because some people with autism have learned to behave in the way that society expects.
You will notice that cognitive and other abilities are not discussed in the definition, and people with autism may have below- normal, normal or above- normal intelligence, and may have other skills ( particularly visual and special skills) that are remarkably adept.
If I were to give you advice, I would say to remember that a person with autism is most importantly a person. If you try, you may find some areas of common interest that can allow a relationship to grow. It isn’t always easy, and some people with autism struggle to make new friendships and even acquaintances. Nonetheless, respectful persistence, and recognizing that an autistic person’s normal behaviors vary widely, may lead you to a rewarding relationship with your friend. Meet your friend where they are, and ask
how you can be the best friend for them.
DEAR DR. ROACH: I recently got my second shingles shot and the pharmacist asked if I had gotten my pneumonia shot. I think I did, but I honestly can’t remember. I’m 66 and diabetic. As such, I’m at a higher risk for COVID. Would it hurt to get a shot a second time if I already had it? I also saw that there are two types of pneumonia shots. Will these help with the severity of COVID, if we happen to contract it? -- D. S.
ANSWER: There are two types of pneumonia shot, called the PPSV23 ( Pneumovax) and the PCV13 ( Prevnar).
Both of these provide protection against a specific type of bacterial pneumonia, caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. If your doctor and pharmacy really can’t find a record of you getting it, I would recommend both vaccines, given your age and diabetes. You should discuss this further with your doctor.
Neither provides any protection against the lung infection from COVID- 19, which is mainly caused by the body’s overvigorous response to the viral infection.
Dr. Roach regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but will incorporate them in the column whenever possible. Readers may email questions to ToYourGoodHealth@ med. cornell. edu or send mail to 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803.
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Guinea has officially declared it has an Ebola epidemic after at least three people have died and four others have been infected in the West African nation.
Neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia have put their citizens on high alert as the three West African nations battled the world’s deadliest Ebola outbreak from 2014 to 2016, which began in Guinea and in which more than 11,300 people died.
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio has flown to consult with Guinean President Alpha Conde.
Guinea’s new Ebola outbreak occurred in N’Zerekore, in southern Guinea, where health officials detected suspicious cases of Ebola with patients presenting symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding. The sick had participated in the burial of a nurse on Feb. 1 in Gouake, according to Guinea’s Minister of Health Remy Lamah, who added that the first investigation counted seven cases, all of people over the age of 25 years, including the two women and one male who have died.
“The government reassures the population that all measures are being taken to stem this epidemic as quickly as possible. It invites the populations of the affected areas to respect hygiene and prevention measures and to report to health authorities in the presence of suggestive signs,” Lamah said in the ministry statement.
The epidemic was declared after a crisis meeting Sunday. All suspected cases have been isolated in N’Zerekore and Conakry, the capital. Investigations have begun, a treatment center has opened and supplies have been sent to the region.
Traditional funerals in which people wash and touch the body of the deceased facilitate the spread of Ebola. It usually jumps to humans from infected animals, such as bats, and then spreads between humans via direct contact with bodily fluids.
Liberia’s president George Weah has mandated health authorities “to heighten the country’s epi-surveillance and preventative activities” and also ordered health officials to “immediately engage communities in towns and villages bordering Guinea and increase anti- Ebola measures.”
Sierra Leone has activated emergency response systems and heightened surveillance for Ebola at the already closed border with Guinea, it said.
International humanitarian and medical organizations are also racing to help prevent further spread of the virus.
The World Health Organization has said it is working to be sure that vaccines developed during the 2014 to 2016 outbreak, will be readily available as quickly as possible. Last month the World Health Organization said it was creating a global emergency stockpile of about 500,000 doses of the Ebola vaccine to help stamp out future outbreaks, but only 7,000 were available at the time of the statement. The Ebola vaccine being stockpiled is made by Merck.
“Time is of the essence. The resurgence of the virus in Guinea comes at the worst possible time when the country is already facing the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mohammed Mukhier, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ Regional Director for Africa said, adding there is hope with scientific advances. “Unless the response is swift, the health, economic and social impacts are likely to be immense for millions of people in a country with a relatively weak health system, and where more than half of the population lives below the poverty line.”
The IFRC and Guinea Red Cross say teams that include more than 2,500 volunteers have been activated in Guinea to provide contact tracing, psychosocial support, water and sanitation.