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!!
