Larson looking for 1st Sprint Cup win
CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Larson believes he’s on the verge of kicking in the door and getting his first NASCAR Sprint Cup win.
The 23-year-old seems to be getting close.
Larson finished second two weeks ago at Dover, then had a chance to win the All-Star exhibition race at Charlotte Motor Speedway last weekend before losing control of his car and hitting the wall following a challenge from Joey Logano. He wound up finishing 16th, missing out on a chance for a breakthrough win and the $1 million firstplace prize.
“It would mean a lot to get it anywhere, but especially here at Charlotte, close to home,” Larson said of his first Sprint Cup win. “... We have been rolling good the last few weeks. Hopefully, we can keep the momentum going. Our car has been getting a lot faster.”
Whether it will be fast enough on Sunday night in the Coca-Cola 600 — NASCAR’s longest race of the year — remains to be seen.
There have been great expectations thrust upon Larson, who has gone 87 races without a Sprint Cup victory.
But his recent success, which includes holding off Chase Elliott to win the third segment of the Sprint Showdown last week to race his way into the All-Star race, has him feeling confident. But certainly not overconfident.
“A lot of the times I’ve seen drivers in the past that run well in the All-Star race don’t run well at the 600,” Larson said. “Hopefully, that is not the case this week, but we are going to work really hard to try and have a good run. Hopefully, it all works out.”
Larson, who’ll start 24th on Sunday night, is expected to receive plenty of competition from Logano, who has won the last two races at CMS, including the fall race in October.
Logano will start on the front row Sunday night alongside pole winner Martin Truex Jr.
“This has become one of our best race tracks for sure,” Logano said. “Winning the last two races here, it gives you a lot of confidence going into races.”
But Logano is quick to point out this will be the third different rules package in the last three races at CMS, and the track is always changing depending on the weather.
“It feels like it is something different every time,” Logano said.
Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick has also been strong at CMS in recent years.
Harvick has one win, two second-place finishes and a ninth-place outing in his four points races here since joining Stewart-Haas Racing. He won in October 2014 when he led 162 laps and beat Jeff Gordon to the finish line. He finished runnerup to Jimmie Johnson in May 2014 and Logano last October.
LONDON — Health experts on Friday urged the World Health Organization to consider whether the Rio de Janeiro Olympics should be postponed or moved because of the Zika outbreak.
The 150 experts — including former White House science adviser Dr. Philip Rubin — issued an open letter to the U.N. health agency, calling for the games to be delayed or relocated “in the name of public health.”
The letter cited recent scientific evidence that the Zika virus causes severe birth defects, most notably babies born with abnormally small heads. In adults, it can cause neurological problems, including a rare syndrome that can be fatal or result in temporary paralysis. The authors also noted that despite increased efforts to wipe out the mosquitoes that spread Zika, infections in Rio have gone up rather than down.
Several public health academics have previously warned that having hundreds of thousands of people head to the Aug. 5-21 games in Brazil will inevitably lead to the births of more braindamaged babies and speed up the virus’ global spread. Most people infected by Zika suffer only minor symptoms including fever, a rash and muscle or joint pain.
WHO declared the Zika epidemic to be a global emergency in February and in its latest assessment this week, said it “does not see an overall decline in the outbreak.”
“The fire is already burning, but that is not a rationale not to do anything about the Olympics,” said Amir Attaran, a professor at the University of Ottawa and one of the letter’s authors. “It is not the time now to throw more gasoline onto the fire.”
WHO has already advised pregnant women not to go to Rio and says other travelers should avoid poor and overcrowded parts of the city. The U.N. agency also predicted the Zika risk in August would drop since it will be the South American winter and there should be fewer mosquitoes.
Zika can also be spread via sex in some cases; WHO recommends that pregnant women abstain or practice safe sex with partners returning from Zika-affected areas.
WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said earlier this month that Open letter to the World Health Organization
the U.N. health agency is increasingly worried about Zika but stopped short of recommending the Rio Olympics be moved or postponed. Chan, who is not of childbearing age, noted that she herself would be attending the games.
Among the letter’s signatories are experts from more than two dozen countries in fields including public health, bioethics and pediatrics. The letter also noted a potential conflict of interest, highlighting the decades-long collaboration between WHO and the International Olympic Committee.
The authors said the “overly close” relationship “was last affirmed in 2010 at an event where the Director-General of WHO and president of the IOC signed a memorandum of understanding, which is secret because neither has disclosed it.”
They also pointed to a group that WHO established to help cities not only with health advice, but to potentially help them bid for major events including the Olympics.
“WHO cannot credibly assess the public health risks of Zika and the Olympics when it sets neutrality aside,” the letter stated.
WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
In an email to the AP, the IOC said it would “always consult the WHO for guidance and advice on health matters.”
Concerns over Zika have prompted USA Swimming to move its pre-Olympic training camp from Puerto Rico to Atlanta and Major League Baseball also scrapped a series of games that were going to be held in San Juan.
No Olympic Games have ever been moved from their host city due to medical concerns, but in 2003, FIFA decided to switch the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament from China to the United States on short notice due to the threat posed by the respiratory virus SARS.