RICHMOND, VA - Nine weeks into the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series season, Faith Motorsports is still searching for a little momentum.
With high hopes heading to the short track at Richmond this past weekend, Morgan Shepherd and his crew had done their homework, tested, prepared and hoped it would result in a Top 20 run.
But, as has been the case far too often in the first nine races, Shepherd's luck turned sour on Lap 200 as the oil pump pulley on the #89 Racing With Jesus Chevrolet sheared off.
"We weren't having the best night anyway, but we were looking at a Top 25 maybe even a Top 20 finish until that happened," Shepherd said. "All we can do when these type of things happen is try to make sure they don't happen again and move on to the next week."
Shepherd said the car didn't handle well all evening long, but it was coming in during the second half of the race and he had saved a set of tires for the race's final 50 laps which he ultimately didn't get to use.
"We had another set of tires left where most teams didn't so we hoped to gain some ground at the end," Shepherd said.
The oil pump failure stopped the team in its tracks just before it planned to make its final stop of the evening. The failure caused a caution flag as the car coasted without power back to pit road.
"That was the caution we were looking for," Shepherd said. "But we didn't plan on it being for us."
The car could not be repaired in time to get back onto the track and Shepherd said it would not have been cost effective to try to run the motor again without rebuilding it first.
"Once you run it without oil pressure you don't want to try to run it again until you go through it," he said. "Had we been able to have gotten back out we could have hurt ourselves more financially than we would have gained on the track."
The 36th place finish in the Lipton Tea 250 at Richmond dropped the team to 32nd place in the owner's points race, 26 points back from the 30th place team. It will require Shepherd get the car into the race on time next weekend at Darlington and will mark the first time this year that the team has dropped out of the Top 30 in points.
Shepherd remains 22nd in the 2009 driver's points race leaving Richmond.
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