The first thing on Morgan Shepherd’s mind as he entered the final laps of Sunday’s Daytona 500 was getting rid of pesky Michael Waltrip. After that, he believed chasing leader Davey Allison would be relatively easy.
He got his chance by default when Waltrip blew a piston on lap 191. But Shepherd, whose Ford Thunderbird pushed Allison enough to keep it interesting, fell two lengths short.
In retrospect, Shepherd’s finish was more than he expected. His inaugural race with the Wood Brothers racing team was supposed to be a feeling-out process; instead, he had his best showing in two years.
“Everybody wants to be No. 1, but coming out with a new team and finishing second is a real high for us,” said Shepherd, of Conover, N.C. “I backed up a time or two and tried to make a run, but we didn’t have enough. Davey was just a little bit stronger.”
Shepherd’s 1991 season was pretty respectable with 14 top-10 finishes in 29 races, including four top-5 showings. But with no victories to show for his 12th-place ranking in the Winston Cup standings, the 22-year veteran figured a change was in order and switched to the Wood Brothers team.
The move began showing promise as Shepherd finished a car-length behind winner Bill Elliott in Thursday’s second Twin-125 qualifier. That earned him the fourth spot in the second row. But the Daytona International Speedway has a way of slowing even the hottest drivers, and the Daytona 500 isn’t just another race.
He discovered anew how difficult it is on lap 92 during a 14-car accident on the backstretch that he and Allison narrowly avoided. Shepherd led the next four caution laps before Allison passed him, and the two were ahead of the field for the next 69 laps.
“Davey and I were both just real fortunate,” Shepherd said of the accident. “We were right behind. They (Sterling Marlin, Ernie Irvan and Elliott) went three wide and wedged themselves together, and we were fortunate to go to the outside of it and get by. Sterling almost clipped me when he came back across me.”
The accident would be Shepherd’s only real obstacle other than dealing with Waltrip. But given Allison’s steadiness and a car-length’s lead to work with, Shepherd would need a very wide berth to make up that kind of gap in just two laps.
It never came.
“Getting around him (Allison) was something different,” Shepherd said. “I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with him. I didn’t want to slow us down too much, because I could see Alan Kulwicki coming back there. I didn’t know what I was going to do there at the end.”
Racing followers rarely remember who finished second in races such as these, but Shepherd’s auspicious coming-out party for the Wood Brothers should linger.
And after falling short so many times last year, Shepherd isn’t likely to forget this one, either.
If he only had two more laps . . .
