 DARLINGTON, SC - Coming off of back-to-back solid showings at Talladega and Richmond, Morgan Shepherd felt like he had something to prove on Mother's Day weekend at Darlington. The 66-year-old veteran racer did just that!
Shepherd brought his #89 Racing With Jesus Dodge Charger to the finish line in 16th place, a very solid run considering the number of cars which were damaged by the track "too tough to tame."
"We felt pretty good. I felt good phyically and the crew did a good job," Shepherd said. "We could have picked up a few more spots if some luck had gone our way, but we are very happy to have avoided the big one again and was able to load our car up without any damage for third straight week. The Lord has steered us through two wrecks that we should have gotten caught up in the last couple weeks."
 Shepherd received tire sponsorship for the second race in a row from fellow NASCAR racer Tony Stewart, but due to pit strategies and the way the caution flag flew, the team only used two sets of Goodyears during the 200-mile Diamond Hill Plywood 200.
"We bought three sets and actually took one set over to Tony in the Cup garage for him to use the next night," Shepherd said. "The new pavement there is very good to the tires. The old Darlington wasn't like that."
Shepherd said the team now plans to spend the next 10 days preparing for the Dollar General 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway and is very happy to now be locked in to the race.
"That will allow us to concentrate on racing and not have to concentrate on qualifying," he said. "At Charlotte there are always a bunch of cars so that will take a little pressure off of us."
Shepherd said the team was able to hire a few pit crew members for the Darlington race and will attempt to contract with some individuals again at Charlotte to help pit the car.
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