101-year-old former Nascar driver Morgan Shepherd has seen it all—the rise, fall, rise, fall, and rise of the sport, seven generations of cars, and even the launch of the ill-fated “flying car” series—but, as of today, he’s finally seen the end of his lengthy career.
“I woke up today and thought, ‘today is the day’, Shepherd said from his rural North Carolina home. “I accomplished everything I wanted to do in Nascar—I won a Sportsman Division Championship, won some Cup Series races, even owned my own race team. But its time to face facts—my time in this great sport is passed.
Shepherd’s announcement comes 28 years after his last national touring series start, and 23 years after his race team’s last start.
“It takes a long time for a man to make a decision of this magnitude”, Shepherd said, “and for me, that took over two decades. I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t decide one day when I was 92 years old that I wanted to race again. I had to make sure I got it out of my system.”
Although Shepherd’s active career may officially be over, don’t expect him to completely walk away from the race track just yet.
“The Nascar folks put on a great party for my 100th birthday last year”, Shepherd said, “and I still have a lot of friends—well, sons of friends—in the sport. I’m sure I’ll strap on the ol’ roller skates at some point and see how the tenth-generation car is doing, or see if anyone needs a hand driving the solar pace car.”
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