CONCORD, N.C. - Joe Millikan, who was injured in a multi-vehicle accident outside of El Paso, Texas on Wednesday, was released from Thomason Hospital on Friday afternoon.
Seems to me the drivers need resources like the NFL players have for the retired guys...........
Monday, February 5, 2007
On Hard Times: NASCAR Busch Series champ and wife struggle with ailments and little money
By Bill Dyer
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Sam Ard, who drove the red-on-white Oldsmobile with Thomas Brothers Country Ham No. 00 to back-to-back NASCAR Busch Series championships in 1983-84, now faces the biggest challenge of his life.
Last year, Ard, a Southside-area racing legend, had symptoms of a stroke and was hospitalized.
But after a series of tests, it was confirmed that he had Alzheimer's.
This is not the first obstacle that Ard has had to face.
He was the runner-up to the crown in 1982 in a Busch Series career that lasted only three seasons. He had to quit racing after a wreck at North Carolina Motor Speedway in 1984.
Severe head injuries left him unable to maintain his balance or speak clearly, and his short-term memory was at a low point.
Still, he was determined to walk again.
"I built a sawdust pile behind my home to cushion my falls," Ard said in a recent telephone interview. "I wanted to walk again. I knew my driving career was over, but I couldn't make a living off sympathy. I needed to work. I had a wife and kids to support."
Ard made a comeback, this time as a car owner, winning a few races with Jimmy Hensley and Jeff Burton.
"Things got better," Ard said. "I walked better, but I couldn't hold out to do anything. My breathing was getting so bad that all I was doing was taking breaks."
Ard said that doctors later discovered that his breathing problem came from exposure to asbestos used in the floorboard of his racecars.
That was only the beginning of what was to come later.
Months before he was found to have Alzheimer's, Jo, Ard's wife of 46 years, learned of a degenerative eye disease that could lead to blindness. She has already lost most of her sight in her right eye and now fears that the problem may spread to her left eye.
The Ards now live in a modest mobile home on a farm owned by a sister in Pamplico, S.C. Ard is equipped with a tracking device to keep up with his whereabouts. His activities are limited to riding around the farm in an old pickup truck with his dog and son Robert, one of the couple's four children.
The problems that plague the Ards are both physical and financial. They live on $1,200 a month in Social Security money, limited medical benefits from the VA hospital and money that Ard's wife earns cleaning houses.
http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149193024929
Hmmmmmmmmm...are they trying to fill seats?
"Out here the Stater Bros supermarket chain has a deal for every $55.00 you spend in groceries you receive one free ticket to the Nascar cup race in Fontana on Sunday Feb 25th. Free parking besides."