Economic difficulties felt in garage, seen in the stands

RICHMOND, Va. -- Morgan Shepherd's goal for Friday night's Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway was easy -- run the entire event. Sounds simple enough, modest at best. But for Shepherd, that tops any goal he's had this season.

Richmond was Shepherd's ninth start in 11 Nationwide events this season. He retired early in the first seven events for the same reason -- handling. Only at Phoenix did he run more than 50 laps.

But at Talladega last weekend, Shepherd finished 13th in the race, completing all 117 laps. It was the first time he had finished a race since a 2004 Cup event at Daytona, and it was his first Nationwide Series finish since 2003.

The reason he was able to finish the race -- he only had to change tires once.

Running his team from his own pocket, from his own garage in Conover, N.C., racing isn't the most economic-friendly business for Shepherd. His Web site lists 10 employees, if you include his dog, Charger.

So this week, the initial plan was much the same: Qualify for the race, start the race, run until the tires went out, then go home. But that plan changed.

"A good friend of mine, Tony Stewart, decided to buy our tires so we plan to run the whole race," Shepherd said before he qualified Friday night. "I hate going out and running and having to retire because of handling, because when your tires go out you don't have handling."

Stewart hated to see it, too.

"Just felt like doing it," Stewart said. "Morgan is a great guy. There are a lot of people in the stands that don't realize who Morgan Shepherd is. They think he's just some guy who drives a green racecar that says 'Racing with Jesus' every week. They don't understand that years ago he used to be one of the top guys in the Cup Series."

Shepherd's heyday in Cup was during the 1980s and '90s, when single-car teams could succeed and did. Shepherd won four races in his Cup career all while driving for single-car teams. Now as a single-car operator himself, he's trying to overcome the failing economic crunch that has a firm grip on a vast majority of the nation.

It's the camouflaged portion of how such economic hardships can have a crippling effect on auto racing.

The obvious, however, can be seen in the stands.

Thursday night, local television stations aired commercials pushing ticket availability for Saturday night's Crown Royal 400. The sign on the speedway's front door says tickets are still available. It's nothing new; tracks all over the schedule face empty seats each week. But not at Richmond.

The track has sold out 32 consecutive races, but as of Friday night was still pushing tickets. (Continued)