Shepherd Enjoys Life Now : NASCAR: At 48, he is finding success on and off the race track.

Stock car driver Morgan Shepherd has found that life has just begun, both on and off the race track, at 48.

Shepherd is the points leader in NASCAR’s Winston Cup Series going into today’s Banquet Frozen Foods 300 on the 2.52-mile road course at Sears Point International Raceway.

He has never led the series and has only two victories in 246 races since he joined the circuit in 1980. Shepherd has earned $236,635 this season driving a Ford Thunderbird for owner Bud Lewis.

Shepherd’s newfound success contrasts a childhood of poverty growing up in North Carolina.

“I remember a man came walking down the road and my mother said, ‘That’s your father. He’s home from prison,’ ” Shepherd said.

Shepherd said his father had been jailed for selling moonshine in his country store in the hills of North Carolina where dirt roads and country-store, post-office towns were commonplace.

“I hung around a service station a lot and bought my first car when I was 12,” Shepard said. “I took that car apart and put it back together again several times.”

Shepherd started racing for Hal Houston in 1959 but didn’t develop into a professional driver until he was 26. He’s driven for 25 different owners, but reached a low point in 1975.

“I didn’t have a ride (sponsor) that year and my wife had left me,” he said. “So I took my dog, Shep, packed up my Camaro and traveled all over the country driving wherever I could.

“I drove 17 different cars that year and finished second in the Busch Grand National series. That year I learned that if you work hard enough, you have the opportunity in this country to improve yourself.”

Shepherd has six children and five grandchildren and says he has been “blessed” late in his life. He started roller skating at 33 and began dancing in local honky tonks at 41.

“There were a lot of things I couldn’t do as a kid like play baseball or football because I was always working,” Shepherd said. “Racing has made life better for me financially.

“All these years, I’ve wondered if this is ever going to happen. I’m getting older, but I’ve worked hard to take care of myself and make the years last.

“We still haven’t won any races, but it looks like we’re getting closer every week.”

Shepherd qualified eighth in his red and white Motorcraft Thunderbird for today’s race at 89.51 m.p.h.