Experience Gets Top 25 At Watkins Glen

Experience and strategy paid off as Morgan Shepherd drove the #89 Racing With Jesus car to a 24th place finish in the Nationwide race at Watkins Glen.

Going into the race, Morgan’s strategy was to run near the rear of the pack. No stranger to this demanding road course, Shepherd has raced this course numerous times and has even been a pole-sitter during his Cup career.

“Everytime we had a re-start I would intentionally drop to the back of the line,” Shepherd said. “I knew more cars would leave that place torn up than would finish and that was about how it worked out.”

And torn up they were.

As the race entered into its closing stages, the #89 was running in 28th place. With 7 laps left in the race, disaster on the track brought the race to a halt.

In a move that would qualify as “Bad Judgment of the Day,” Michael McDowell crashed into the car driven by David Gilliland, resulting in a 9 car pile-up that halted the race for some 43 minutes.

Former series champion Bobby LaBonte was sent to an area hospital as a result of injuries from the ensuing carnage. He was later released from the hospital and given the OK to return to racing.

As the final laps of the race unfolded, Shepherd’s strategy began to pay dividends.

Mechanical problems and lack of fuel forced many of NASCAR’s top names to the sidelines as the #89 picked up spot after spot.

When the checkered flag finally flew, Marcos Ambrose crossed the finish line in his first-ever NASCAR victory.

Morgan Shepherd drove the #89 to a 24th place finish ahead of  Carl Edwards, Boris Said, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Keeping his car intact, the team has plans to race this car in the upcoming Bristol race.

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You can follow the inspiring story of this team and read more about Morgan Shepherd and Racing with Jesus at the team’s website – www.racewithfaith.com. In addition to the team’s site, Jeff Parnell of KingdomWinners.com is writing a weekly blog of the team’s exploits at Christian Business Daily.

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….. to be continued…..