Published: May 06, 2008 04:13 pm            

STEWART HELPS OUT MORGAN SHEPHERD

Monticello — Tony Stewart decided to help out Morgan Shepherd's underfunded

Nationwide Series team this past Friday night at Richmond.

Shepherd simply did not have the money to buy enough tires for the

entire race. Tires cost around $400 each, and if a team uses 20 tires during

a race, the cost would be around $8,000.

Stewart said he "just felt like doing it."

"Morgan is a great guy," Stewart said. "Everybody loves Morgan to death.

There are a lot of people in the stands that don't realize who Morgan

Shephard is. They think he's just some guy who drives a green race car that

says ŒRacing with Jesus' every week.

"They don't understand that years ago he used to be one of the top guys

in the Cup series. They don't realize that he lost everything and is

rebuilding everything now. It just shows that there are a lot of people

that care about him as a person and respect him‹not only as a race-car

driver, but as a human being. You can do something like that to help out.

It's worthwhile and it's somebody that deserves the help. I respect guys

like Morgan that still work out of their own garage and do the work

themselves and still come out here and race against Childress, Gibbs and

Roush every week and still go out there with the attitude that we're going

to do the best we can."

        

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