Morgan Shepherd – Still #NASCAR Racing at Seventy-Six

"When I stop, my toes will be turned up."

Morgan Shepherd, driver of the #89 Visone RV Chevrolet, stands
in the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Xfinity Series
‘My Bariatric Solutions 300 at Texas Motor Speedway-04/06/18
(Sean Gardner/Getty Images) Fort Worth, Texas.

When Morgan Shepherd started the ‘My Bariatric Solutions 300’ Saturday, he joined an elite company as it marked his 1,000th career NASCAR start. Only *eight drivers have reached that milestone.

The seventy-six-year-old started racing in 1967 and he has been racing ever since . . . for fifty-one years. For comparison, Saturday’s race winner, Ryan Blaney was not born until 1993 - Shepherd is fifty-seven years older than the youngest driver in the race: Kaz Grala. 

APRIL 26, 1981: Morgan Shepherd in victory lane following the Virginia 500
 at Martinsville Speedway.(Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images)

“I bought myself a '37 Chevrolet – I paid twelve dollars and a half, two flying squirrels, a gray squirrel and a 20-gauge shotgun for it,” said Shepherd, who made his first NASCAR series start in 1970 at a dirt-track race in North Carolina. “There was my education to racing.”

Shepherd has won four Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series events and another fifteen races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Morgan’s last cup win came on 03/20/1993 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the ‘Motorcraft Quality Parts 500.’

He won from a seventh-place start in his #21 Citgo (Wood Brothers) Ford.

He bested some of NASCAR’s greats: Jeff Gordon (4th -1 Lap Down); Bill Elliott (9th - 2 Laps Down); Dale Earnhardt (11th - 3 Laps Down) on his way to a $70,350 purse.

"When I was in my 20s and started racing, I thought 40 was old.” Shepherd recalled “Here I am at 76, still dancing in my roller skates, still driving a race car at 200 mph. What a great opportunity to reach people."

So how much longer will we fans see Morgan Shepherd take the green flag?

"I'm not never stopping," the 76-year-old Shepherd said. "When I stop, my toes will be turned up."

In case you were wondering - Morgan Shepherd started the ‘My Bariatric Solutions 300’ from a thirty-third starting position for a thirty-eighth place finish after completing thirty-three laps.

*Drivers with over 1,000 Starts

1. Richard Petty (1,185)
2. Mark Martin (1,143)
3. Joe Nemechek (1,139),
4. Kevin Harvick (1,081),
5. Michael Waltrip (1,072),
6. Terry Labonte (1,017)
7. Jeff Burton (1,005) 
8. Morgan Shepherd (1000)

Source

Morgan Shephard being our favorite Morgan Shephard. https://t.co/2S0nTyY1Wp

— Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) April 7, 2018

In 1987, Morgan Shepherd claimed that some teams had illegal devices that could dump oil onto the cars behind them. Like James Bond pic.twitter.com/hR6VXaddGD

— nascarman (@nascarman_rr) April 7, 2018

🏁 🏆 Related Posts:

1. Kevin Harvick Vs. #NASCAR’s Pit Guns
2. #NASCAR Race Winner Kyle Busch – In-N-Out
3. Jimmie Johnson Hopeful In Texas
4. Kevin Harvick - Freaky Fast Start
5. Kyle Busch - So Close, Yet So Far Away