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Harvicks help Shepherd with new race car
05-20-08

CONCORD, NC - One racer giving to his fellow competitor has been part of the family atmosphere of NASCAR racing for 60 years. But the actions of Kevin and DeLana Harvick at this weekend’s Carquest Auto Parts 300 exemplify helping your fellow man.

Kevin and DeLana have donated a Nationwide Series race car to fellow competitor Morgan Shepherd in an effort to keep the 66-year young “old-school” racer on the track a while longer.

Sporting a new custom candied-apple green paint scheme, Shepherd has entered the car in this weekend’s 200-lap event at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

“I am just so thankful for Kevin and DeLana and their willingness to help me,” Shepherd said. “I just couldn’t believe it when they called and told me they were giving me a race car. I just didn’t know what to say. I am just so honored to have friends like the Harvicks, Tony Stewart, Matt Yocum and the Jarretts.”

Shepherd, who pilots the #89 Victory in Jesus Racing race car for Faith Motorsports, has spent much of the past decade trying to keep his small team running on a skeleton crew and shoestring budget. After spending many years in the Sprint Cup Series, Shepherd switched to Nationwide Series racing in 2007 and has spent the past year building his Nationwide equipment.

“Most all of these teams have separate cars for each track they run,” Shepherd said. “We have a couple of cars and we work each week setting them up for the next week. Sometimes we run the same car on everything from a two-mile track down to a half-mile track or even on the road courses.”

Shepherd said the car donated by the Harvicks will increase the Faith Motorsports fleet to four cars and allow the team to have two short and intermediate-track cars, a dedicated road-course car and a superspeedway car.

While the Harvicks’ gesture of kindness has been by far the biggest gift Shepherd has received from a colleague, it is nowhere near the only one.

Fellow racer Tony Stewart and broadcaster Matt Yocum helped Shepherd with his tire bill two weeks ago at Richmond. Stewart stepped up again with help on Shepherd’s tires at Darlington last weekend. Shepherd has responded with a Top-15 and a Top-20 finish in the past three races.

Not to be out-done, retiring racing legend Dale Jarrett said he will help keep Shepherd’s efforts going strong by footing the bill for his Goodyear Racing Eagles this weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Hello DreamWeaver,

Brother, this is a great story that I'm happy you shared. I do watch racing every now and then, so I'll be looking for this car.

Love In Christ,
Tom

 

3:16 Athletic Wear named official team supplier
Author:
   
Faith Motorsport/3:16 Athletic Wear PR
Date Posted:
   
08-01-08
WILKES BARRE, PA - Faith Motorsports has entered into a uniform sponsorship agreement with 3:16 Athletic Wear, Inc., a producer of Christian-oriented technical clothing for athletes, the companies announced August 1.

The partnership will begin immediately and will include driver Morgan Shepherd and his Racing With Jesus NASCAR Nationwide Series race car appearing with 3:16 representatives next week at KingdomBound, a faith-based gathering in Darien Center, NY.

3:16, which is becoming widely known for its “build-a-shirt” program which lets each individual athlete or fan add a favorite Bible verse, artistic design or photograph to competition race shirts or casual wear, produces clothing lines for runners, cyclists, triathletes, golfers and more.

"We help athletes and fans witness for the Lord according to their sport, personality and calling," says company founder Rich Pais. "Teaming with Morgan Shepherd and KingdomWinners.com fits perfectly with our desire to help bring Jesus out of church and into every venue of our society. God bless Morgan and his ministry. We are thrilled to be on the team".

As part of the sponsorship, 3:16 will produce custom technical clothing for the Faith Motorsports team, including crew shirts, jackets and other apparel. The company will also produce custom technical clothing bearing team logos the team’s official online merchandise home.

The 3:16 logo will appear on Shepherd’s #89 Racing With Jesus stock car next weekend at Watkins Glen and at other select races later this year.

As part of the agreement, 3:16 Athletic Wear will become the official supplier of tech clothing to the #89 Faith Motorsports team and driver Morgan Shepherd.

3:16 Athletic Wear is based in Wilkes Barre, Pa., and appears at marathons and Christian festivals throughout the eastern United States. It will be opening it's first retail location in downtown Wilkes Barre this fall.

Because of advertisement, I can't post links to Faith motorsports.

Lagina Plumbing to sponsor Faith motorsports in Carfax 250
   
08-11-08
MILWAUKEE, WI - Lagina Plumbing announced August 11 that it will sponsor the Faith Motorsports #89 Dodge Charger and driver Morgan Shepherd in this weekend’s Carfax 250 at Michigan International Speedway. The Michigan race is the culmination of the Milwaukee-based company’s support effort which included smaller associate sponsorships earlier this summer at Milwaukee, Chicagoland, Indianapolis and St. Louis.

“We are thrilled to team up with Faith Motorsports and with a driver like Morgan,” said James Lagina, president of Lagina Plumbing. “This partnership expands our presence in racing, building on the successful Nationwide Series, and enables us to reach even more customers and engage more people in the excitement of NASCAR. Morgan is truly a tremendous inspiration to us and our company. He stands for what we really believe and we are looking forward to rooting him on.”

Lagina said in working with Shepherd and his crew on four previous race weekends he saw the team’s desire to compete at the level of other teams with much larger sponsorships. “Many teams may have additional resources at their disposal yet lack the savvy the #89 team exudes,” Lagina said. “It has been a wonderful blessing to have been associated with the whole organization.”

Lagina Plumbing specializes in new construction, renovations and plumbing upgrades. The southeastern Wisconsin company employs the latest plumbing technology at its state-of-the-art facility, including 3D Auto Cad and advanced pre-fabrication techniques.
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Praise God, Morgan Shepard lives for Christ and wears Christ on his sleeve.

Hello DreamWeaver,

Brother, it is refreshing and wonderful to see and hear many famous Christians' testimonies for CHRIST. Sadly, things like this were much more common in years past. Public figures of all kinds used to give testimonies for CHRIST. I remember many of them quite well. Children look up to a lot of these public figures, so I think it's wonderful when they give a testimony for CHRIST. Now more than ever, children need positive role models who aren't ashamed of the GOSPEL and love CHRIST. I'll be one of their fans whether they win or not. By the way, their biggest win was accepting JESUS CHRIST as LORD and SAVIOUR!

Love In Christ,
Tom

One of the reasons I like NASCAR, Alot of the drivers have Christian symbols, or verses on their cars. The drivers aren't afraid to speak out for Christ.

Nationwide COT test at Richmond:

The Nationwide Series begins a new era when its new car goes on track for the first of two scheduled tests Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 8-9, at Richmond International Raceway. Wednesday, Sept. 10, will be a rain date. Each of the four series manufacturers – Chevy, Dodge, Ford and Toyota – will be permitted to bring two cars. The drivers are to be announced but will be representative of their specific manufacturer. “The goal of this test is for the manufacturers and participating teams to start laying a foundation for the transfer phase from the current car to the new car in the Nationwide Series,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition. The cars will be on track in their current stages of development and the test data will be shared among the manufacturers, teams and NASCAR.

A  lineup of drivers has been announced for the two-day Nationwide Series new car test scheduled to begin Monday at Richmond International Raceway.

TOYOTA (Michael Waltrip Racing car)
Kyle Busch (Monday only)
David Reutimann (Monday and Tuesday)

CHEVY (Richard Childress Racing car)
Morgan Shepherd (Monday and Tuesday) from Faith motorsports.
Scott Wimmer (Monday and Tuesday)
Kevin Harvick (Monday partial day only)

DODGE (Chip Ganassi Racing car)
David Stremme (Monday and Tuesday)

FORD (Roush Racing car)
David Ragan (Monday and Tuesday)
Carl Edwards (Monday only)
Eric Darnell (Tuesday only)
Collin Braun (Tuesday only)

Determination helps net 26th place run at Michigan

09-09-08
BROOKLYN, MI - Determination was a word poised on the tip of Morgan Shepherd’s tongue on Saturday evening. Had he not demonstrated the trait during his two-day stay at Michigan International Speedway a Top 30 finish would have been out of the question.

“It was just one of those days you have every now and then,” Shepherd said of Saturday’s performance in the CarFax 250 at MIS. “We missed the air pressure big time on qualifying and then we just kept having problems during the early part of the race.”

But by demonstrating determination, Shepherd and the Faith Motorsports crew was able to salvage of 26th place finish on a day that should have been much brighter.

“By the time the race was over we were running Top 20 times every lap,” he said. “We just had so many problems early on that we were in a big hole most of the day.”

Shepherd said his woes began in qualifying when a crew member made a bad call on air pressure in an effort to tighten the car. That mistake resulted in the #89 starting the race shotgun on the field.

Come race time, Shepherd said the car was terribly loose during the first green flag run and on the first pit stop the jack man let the car down before all of the lugs on the rear tire were secured. That’s caused the team to have to come down pit road again.

Then a front tire got cut down after just a handful of green flag laps. That required another pit stop to replace one tire, which resulted in a mis-matched front tire combination.

“We were running one new tire and one used tire on the front, but we kept getting the car a little better each time,” he said. “Had we been able to run the times at the beginning that we could run at the end it would have been a much better day.”

Regardless, the team was able to complete another race thanks to a dose of determination and some financial help from race sponsor Lagina Plumbing!
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This isn't a bad finish from a team badly under funded!! Way to go Morgan!!  :D :D :D :D :D :D :D