Racing With Jesus – Nashville

Morgan roller skates down the front stretch prior to the Nashville race.

Courtesy Getty Images

Practice and Qualifying

Practice times for the #89 Racing With Jesus Dodge Charger, driven by Morgan Shepherd, began as being a little disappointing for the team. In the initial practice, the car’s times were slowest of the 45 cars practicing.

By the final practice session, the car’s speed had picked up quite a bit and Morgan managed to qualify for a 37th place starting position.

Throughout practice and qualifying, the team was plagued by an elusive engine problem. Changing the ignition box resulted in the improvement in time. During the race, Morgan commented that the problem wasn’t a major issue, and, in fact, he was able to get back into the throttle quicker than normal.

Coming off the turns, he was able to run down the other cars with relative ease.

The Race

Fairly early in the race, the #89 experienced an unusual problem with one of the brackets holding the rear window in place. The bracket had failed, resulting with the window being blown outwards by the force of the wind.

This failure of this minor part on the car forced Morgan into the pits under the green flag. Repairs on the rear window were costly as they forced the team to lose laps on the rest of the field.

Courtesy of The Hotlap

The #89 ran with a special sticker honoring The Hotlap for their contribution (and the fans) towards purchasing tires for the “Stickers for Faith” promotion held last week.

As the race entered the last stages, Morgan was running solidly in 29th place. Over the next several laps, he drove the #89 to 24th, which was his finishing position.

We want to add our congratulations to Brad Keselowski, driving for Dale Earnhardt, Jr., for his first NASCAR win.

As the team headed home from the Nashville race, we pick up this entry from Faith Motorsports PR:

Shepherd said after flushing the bugs from his new Dodge Charger chassis at Charlotte last month and adjusting on the car all night at Nashville, he looks forward to next weekend’s Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway.

“We have a great handling car,” he said Sunday while traveling back to the shop in Conover, NC. “We will put a new Ernie Elliott engine in there for Kentucky. If we can get some help (sponsorship) that could be a fun weekend.”

Shepherd said he was thankful for two sets of tires paid for by contributions by fans.

“We were finally able to round up enough tires from teams who fell out, but those tires sure come in handy.”

The team also welcomed some pit stop help from Kevin Harvick’s #33 car after their car crashed late in the contest. Other pit help was provided by Wayne Day’s #05 team whose car did not make the race.

Although a top 15 or 20 finish would have been great, finishing in the top 25 of a NASCAR race is an outstanding achievement in and of itself. The solid performance of Morgan Shepherd and the entire Racing With Jesus team is all the more remarkable in light of the multi-million dollar teams competing week after week in this fast-paced sport.

Each accomplishment brings new awareness to the team and its continuing quest for sponsorship.

Once again, we draw inspiration from this team as they continue to “walk by faith” and we marvel even more as we witness the hand of the Lord “make much of little.” We unashamedly join with their other fans in asking God to bless them and their efforts to spread the good news of Jesus Christ through this racing ministry.

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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…..