I'm not a Tony Stewart fan. You can find that out by reading this post. I think he's one of the two best drivers in the world, but I just don't like his on-track antics. Off the track though, he seems to be a completely different guy. He raises money for charity, and last night he stepped up and helped 66 year-old driver Morgan Shepherd.
Shepherd runs in the Nationwide Series exclusively now and he pays for everything out of his own pocket. One set of tires is $1,800. And every race, drivers go through several sets. Shepherd isn't able to afford that, so usually he runs until the handling goes away on the tires he has, and then he retires from the race. Last week, tires weren't an issue at Talladega and amazingly, he was able to stay on the lead lap and finish 13th. It was the first time he finished a race in the Nationwide Series since 2003.
Enter Tony Stewart for the Nationwide race at Richmond yesterday. He decided to buy enough tires for Shepherd to run the entire race. And I love Stewart's reasoning:
"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."
Hats off to Stewart for stepping up and giving Shepherd a chance he wouldn't have otherwise had. Shepherd finished four laps off the pace, in 28th place, but he was able to run the entire race. And I bet he was smiling the entire time.
