Racing With Jesus – Dover

The Monster Mile

Image courtesy of The Hotlap

The Dover track isn’t called the Monster Mile for nothing. The track exacts a heavy toll for even the slightest mistake, the slightest miscalculation.

This week’s race was no different as several competitors were forced to sideline their efforts as a result of crashes during the race.

After turning in a solid qualifying effort, Morgan Shepherd began the race in the 35th starting position.

As the race unfolded, the #89 Racing With Jesus Dodge Charger found itself going a lap down to the frontrunners.

Heading into the pits for a routine stop, the team fell victim to another aspect of the Monster Mile. Dover has the smallest pit spaces available of any of the tracks in the race series.

As Morgan pulled into the pits, he was blocked from behind by one car that had nosed its front end into the 89’s space and was further trapped due to the car in the space in front of the pit stall.

Sitting at an angle, NASCAR officials refused to allow the pit crew to change tires until the other cars had cleared, putting Morgan another lap down on the leaders.

This proved to be a major blow to the team. During the race, Morgan had posted times in the top 10 and was in the process of chasing down a number of the cars and appeared headed for another top 15 or top 20 finish.

Although the obstacles and the odds seemed to conspire against the team once again, Morgan managed to race the #89 Racing With Jesus Dodge Charger to a solid 22nd place finish, just missing another top 20 spot.

From Faith Motorsports PR:

In commenting on the pit road incident, Morgan had this to say:

“It knocked us out of being able to race those guys in front of us,” Shepherd said. “We were faster than a lot of the cars who were a lap ahead of us, but we just couldn’t get back on the same lap with them.”

However, the team did manage to avoid several near-misses on the track and brought the #89 Dodge home without body damage.

“That’s really more important,” Shepherd said. “We ran a solid race and we have a car to race again with – so while we would love to have been able to run in the Top 15 or 20 we are not discouraged about our night. We know what we are capable of when the situation is right.”

Shepherd said the team plans to switch back to a newer chassis provided by Kevin Harvick, Inc. when the team travels to Nashville’s superspeedway this weekend.

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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.

Read more of this inspiring story

….. to be continued…..