Watch is on if Busch can match Shepherd at ORP

Track's leading top-five man also within one of win record

By Jarrod Breeze, NASCAR.COM
July 23, 2009
02:45 PM EDT

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Way back in 1982, a 40-year-old Morgan Shepherd made 12 starts in NASCAR's newest series, winning twice including the first race held at that other track located just outside the Indianapolis metropolis.

They were known then as the Busch Series and Indianapolis Raceway Park. They are known now as the Nationwide Series and O'Reilly Raceway Park. But Morgan Shepherd, now 67, goes by the same name, and it's his name that tops the track's chart for most wins with three.

Shepherd has made 13 starts at the .686-mile short track.

2Laps led by Morgan Shepherd in last year's race at ORP. Shephered has led 11 laps since the start of the 2007 season including three this year.

3Different makes in which Morgan Shepherd won at ORP: No. 7 Oldsmobile (1982), No. 1 Pontiac ('84) and No. 97 Buick ('88; owned by Shepherd).

7Top-10s for Morgan Shepherd at ORP, fifth-most of all time. He posted six top-10s in his first seven starts and his last in 1992.

13Years between starts at ORP for Morgan Shepherd. He raced there in 1992 and didn't return until 2006 and has started each race since.

Shepherd has never raced a full season in his previous 23 years in the series, although he attempted to make every race in 2008, starting 27 with eight DNQs, and again this year, 14 of 19 races with five DNQs.

Coverage of the Kroger 200 (Entry List | Tickets) begins at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN. Eight drivers will be pulling double-duty, four each from the Cup and Truck series. Joining Nationwide regulars Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards from the Cup ranks are Matt Kenseth and David Reutimann; Aric Almirola, Terry Cook, Ron Hornaday, Dennis Setzer will make an encore appearance at the track following the previous night's Truck race.

1Laps led by Carl Edwards in four starts, although he hasn't finished worse than 11th in the past three races. He has an average finish of 11.2

3Top-10s in as many starts for Matt Kenseth, who hasn't raced there since 1999 when he drove Robbie Reiser's No. 17 Chevrolet to a 5.3 average finish.

3Place of finish in last year's race for Mike Bliss, his first top-five at ORP but fifth top-10 in six starts.

3Top-fives in six starts for Jason Leffler including a win in 2007, his only top-10 in the past three races.

4Top-10s in eight starts for Ron Hornaday, whose only two top-fives were a victory in 2000 (driving the No. 3 Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Inc.) and a fifth-place finish in 2007 (driving the No. 77 Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick Inc.), his most recent series start there.

21Races won from a top-10 starting position including the past seven years. Five races have been won from the pole, the last in 2002 (Greg Biffle).

THE BUSCH WATCH

Kyle Busch has a string of seven consecutive races with a top-two finish including three wins. Two more consecutive top-two finishes would tie Jack Ingram's 1983 record of nine in a row.

2Wins at ORP for Kyle Busch including last year's race when he led 197 of 200 laps. In his two other starts there, he hasn't finished better than 21st.

THE WOW FACTOR

4Consecutive years Jason Keller started and finished in the same position at ORP beginning with his victory from the pole in 1999. All four races produced top-five finishes. Keller is second all time at ORP with seven top-fives and nine top-10s, which leads all active drivers.

THE SUPER LOOPER

107.5Driver Rating for both Mike Bliss and Aric Almirola in two starts at ORP, best among all drivers entered in this week's race. However, there's a difference of 16.0 in average finish because of a crash after 141 of 200 laps in 2007 resulted in a 38th-place finish for Almirola.

Driver Rating (since 2005, four races)

Pos.	Driver*	Starts	Rating	Pct. Laps / Top 15	Avg. Run Pos.	Avg. Fin.

1.	Mike Bliss	2	107.5	88.3	8.5	6.0
1.	Aric Almirola	2	107.5	80.8	10.2	22.0
3.	Kyle Busch	2	103.7	56.0	14.1	11.0
4.	Scott Wimmer	2	97.0	88.5	10.7	5.5
5.	Jason Leffler	3	96.3	64.5	11.9	12.0
6.	Carl Edwards	4	92.3	55.5	16.2	11.3
7.	Ron Hornaday	3	91.8	73.3	11.5	14.0
8.	Jason Keller	4	90.3	70.1	12.4	13.5
9.	Brad Keselowski	2	81.1	40.3	15.1	14.5
10.	Bobby Hamilton Jr.	2	81.0	52.3	15.5	13.5

• Loop Data Statistics: Season-to-Date Box Score | * Entered in this race only

BLAST FROM THE PAST

7Top-five finishes in series points for Tommy Houston, who is the all-time leader at ORP in top-fives with seven and top-10s with 10 (15 races). He won the second race held there in 1983, his lone victory at the track. Houston won 24 races in the series, seventh on the all-time list, and finished in the top 10 in points in 10 of his 12 full-time seasons and was runner-up in 1989.

Series winners at O'Reilly Raceway Park

Year	Driver	Make	Year	Driver	Make

1982	Morgan Shepherd	Oldsmobile	1996	Randy LaJoie	Chevrolet
1983	Tommy Houston	Chevrolet	1997	Randy LaJoie	Chevrolet
1984	Morgan Shepherd	Pontiac	1998	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet
1985	Jimmy Hensley	Oldsmobile	1999	Jason Keller	Chevrolet
1986	Butch Miller	Pontiac	2000	Ron Hornaday	Chevrolet
1987	Larry Pearson	Pontiac	2001	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
1988	Morgan Shepherd	Buick	2002	Greg Biffle	Ford
1989	Michael Waltrip	Pontiac	2003	Brian Vickers	Chevrolet
1990	Steve Grissom	Oldsmobile	2004	Kyle Busch	Chevrolet
1991	Bobby Labonte	Oldsmobile	2005	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet
1992	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	2006	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
1993	Tracy Leslie	Chevrolet	2007	Jason Leffler	Toyota
1994	Mike Wallace	Chevrolet	2008	Kyle Busch	Toyota
1995	Jason Keller	Chevrolet

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Standings

Pos.	+/-	Driver	Points	Behind

1.	--	Kyle Busch	3,121	--
2.	--	Carl Edwards	2,909	-212
3.	--	Brad Keselowski	2,744	-377
4.	--	Jason Leffler	2,648	-473
5.	--	Joey Logano	2,395	-726
6.	+1	Mike Bliss	2,289	-832
7.	-1	Justin Allgaier	2,270	-851
8.	+1	Steve Wallace	2,156	-965
9.	+1	Jason Keller	2,151	-970
10.	-2	Brendan Gaughan	2,150	-971