NASCAR Morgan Shepherd says he has more stamina than many younger drivers. It has been years since Morgan Shepherd had a car capable of racing at the front of the pack. But nearly every week, even at age 66, he continues to show up at the NASCAR tracks with a car or a truck. More times than not, he's able to wring enough speed from his machine to qualify for the Nationwide or Craftsman Truck Series race.

Then once the race starts, he's soon back to the garage, usually about the time his first set of tires wear thin. "Handling" is most often listed as the official reason for his early departure. "Shortage of funds" would be more appropriate.

"If we had somebody to sponsor us, somebody like Geritol, we could run longer in the race," Shepherd said.

He's optimistic that there are better days ahead because of additional funding and assistance.

"We started out with just one car, and now it looks like we're going to end up with four," he said.

Shepherd said if he had the money to buy more tires, hire more people and build faster race cars, he's up to the task of driving them, even though he's already at an age where he's collecting Social Security payments.

"My age has nothing to do with it," he said. "I could run the races and more. ... It wasn't but a few years ago in a Cup race at Martinsville that I ran the whole race. It was a hot day. Kasey Kahne and some of the younger drivers were taking oxygen after the race, and I was walking around talking to everybody.

"I try to keep myself in shape with my roller skating. I can go the distance anytime they get ready."

But Shepherd says that even when he's racing at the back of the pack, he still gets a lot of mileage for the ministry that is a big part of his "Victory in Jesus" race team.

"We're working it to where it works good for our ministry, and we can do a lot of speaking engagements," he said, adding that he's planning a trip to speak to inmates at a prison near Phoenix.

He said that even though sponsorship is vital to his race team and his religious efforts, he's not going to associate with a company that would compromise his ministry.

"One thing that hurts us [in securing sponsorship] is what we stand for," he said. "We won't support anything that will harm anybody. The things we do are about moral values, and sometimes we kind of get pushed to the side a little bit."