Full Throttle

Kyle Busch’s first victory of 2008 came in April at Texas, the question now is will Saturday’s dominating performance at the same track be his last, or will he go on to break Sam Ard’s 25 year old record of ten wins?

With only two events remaining at Phoenix and Homestead I suspect the only thing that will keep him tied with Ard is not entering one or both of the final NNS events.

Busch dominated the field by leading 174 of the 200 laps, beating Carl Edwards to the checkered flag.

Mark Martin finished third, followed by Joey Logano and David Ragan.

“Sam Ard was one of the pioneers of the sport and this really means a lot to me,” Busch said. “I got to thinking about it and I decided I’m going give him $100,000 to try to help him out.”

Ard, who won the NASCAR Nationwide Series title in 1983 and 1984, has been battling Alzheimer’s disease and facing financial woes. The former champion was 66 years old when he was first diagnosed with the disease. Doctors believe that that the onset of the disease was likely quickened by severe head injuries Ard sustained in a career-ending accident in 1984.

Despite missing the final event of that season, he still won the championship by more than 400 points. In addition, Ard’s wife Jo has been diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease that is slowly taking her vision.